4th season of Gotham-Alternate version
by Quinocho
Summary: What if in the 22th chapter of the 3rd season of "Gotham", Bruce had not brutally rebuffed Selina? What would have happened after that? Would things have been different? Lots of BatCat! Enjoy, and sorry for my bad English!
1. How is Alfred?

Bruce was more fallen than sitting on a chair in the hospital corridor, eaten by guilt and pain, when he heard steps. He raised his eyes. It was Selina. He suddenly felt a fit of rage although he could not explain the reason.

'Bruce, I heard about Alfred. Is he gonna be okay?'

Bruce's rage increased. What was Selina playing? She had been avoiding him for months, and now, she just reappeared in his life? Worse, he visualized an image of her judging him for what had happened. "Maybe she even thinks she's better than me", he thought.

'Go home, Selina', he said, in the most despective tone he could find.

'What happened?', the girl asked.

'No, you don't get to do this', Bruce said; in that moment, he wanted nothing to do with her.

'Do what?'

'Walk back into my life! You think I need your pity? I don't!

He did not. He did not need her pity. He needed to be understood by someone. Someone to unload on the awful feeling of guilt which was overwhelming him. And Selina was not that someone. She, he was seeing it clearly, only thought of herself and valued people according to their possible usefulness. Maybe she was there for that reason. Because she wanted something from him.

'That's not why I'm here!'

Bruce's rage increased even more. She did not even care he was having an awful time! Or so he thought. She was there to use him, sure, taking advantage of he being vulnerable. And, in addition, it was not the first time she did that. She had never cared about him. Only about what she could obtain from him.

'You want to know what happened? You wouldn't understand.'

'Why? Because I'm...I'm not desperate to believe in something?'

Bruce was about to answer her in the most brutal way possible that she did not believe in anything or anyone but herself, when the voice of sensibility said him "She has no idea about what has happened, maybe she thinks Alfred has been injured in some of kind of fight to save the city which you were commited to, and she's here to reproach your obsession with saving everyone although in fact her real reason is that she was afraid because _you_ could have been killed, because she really cares a lot about _you"._ Although that was a preposterous hypothesis, he decided to give it an opportunity.

'Why are you here? I thought that you didn't want anything to do with me, that you didn't care about what could happen to me', Bruce said, his hands in his pockets, in the most serene tone he could.

'Curious. Because until some days ago, that was true', the girl said in an apparently unconcerned tone.

'What?', Bruce looked at her, confused.

'Some days ago, I really did want nothing to do with you since you hurt me so much about my mother. But then, your, let's say, "twin brother", came to visit me and told me you had been kidnapped and took out the city', Bruce noticed a slight tremble in the girl's voice. 'And when I realized that what he was doing was impersonating you, I tried to warn Alfred about what had happened and he tried to kill me by throwing me out of a window. And if not for Ivy's help, he had succeeded'.

Bruce looked at her, speechless. All that was new for him. But it made him see the girl in a different way. Although she did not yet know that it was _him_ who had injured Alfred seriously, maybe she had associated what she had been said by Bruce's clone with what had just happened. The reason she was there to visit him was neither more nor less than this, that she was really worried about him. And probably she had been for some days. He felt slightly ashamed of himself.

'I'm sorry for having spoken to you in that way, Selina', he muttered, lowering his eyes. 'Maybe...maybe I'm so ashamed about what has happened that I snapped at you.'

'Ashamed? Now you're ashamed about your savior complex?,' Selina shook her head.

'What do you mean?'

'That's what has happened, isn't it? You and Alfred have tried to save this city from the mess in which it is because of Jervis Tetch's virus instead of saving your asses, Alfred got seriously injured and now you feel badly for having put him in that situation. Seriously, Bruce, sometimes I don't know to think about you.'

'No, that isn't what has happened.'

'What then?'

'You would't understand.'

'Again? Why don't you try to explain it to me? Perhaps I'm more understanding than you think', Selina crossed her arms and stared at him defiantly.

Bruce took a deep breath. Perhaps if he told her about it, the huge feeling of guilt he had would be relieved. He invited her to sit down but Selina refused and stood there, her arms crossed.

'I'm all ears.'

And Bruce told her all. He told her about his kidnapping and about how "the Shaman" had brainwashed him to turn him into a puppet of the Court of Owls. He told her about how the Court of Owls was involved into the Waynes' murders and about how the Shaman had exterminated them. He did not hid from her neither that _he_ had been about to activate the virus nor that it was _his_ fault that Alfred was dying. He did not forget either about the mysterious Ras al Ghul or about that allegedly from the destruction of Gotham a new hero would be born, a hero that, according to those who had pushed him to all of this, it would be him.

'Fuck...', Selina whispered. 'I was prepared to tell you to forgot that savior complex, because you'll only get to be killed, but it didn't occurred to me you were in such a big mess, no way.'

She stopped for a second and then she added,

'According to what you've told me, the ones who ordered your parents' deaths are now dead. And the one who killed them, Matches Malone, is dead too. So they have justice now, haven't they?'

'Well...yes', Bruce accepted.

'What if, seen that, you begin to do things rich teenagers do? For example, having a bit of fun. Dating girls. That kind of things. After all, you can afford them. You are rich, make the most of it', Selina slightly smiled.

'I appreciate it. But I can't', Bruce answered.

'Why not?'

'Because Ras al Ghul is still free. It was him, the one who encouraged me to do what I've done. I have to find him.'

'Holy God, Bruce. You'll end up being killed!', Selina sighed. 'Why don't you leave that in adults' hands and you behave like a rich normal teenager like I suggested?'

Bruce saw that Selina, although pretending indifference, in fact was very worried about what could happen to him. However, he felt he could not do what she was saying.

'I thank you for your concern, seriously. But I must have my way, alone. I don't expect you to understand.'

Selina sighed deeply.

'You're right. I don't understand why you're so excited about being killed. I don't understand why, if you can have an easy and carefree life, you do the opposite.'

Bruce was about to answer when a doctor appeared.

'He has got over the surgery. Now we're gonna to carry him to a room.'

'Will he be OK?', Bruce asked, anguished.

'We must wait. He has lost a lot of blood, you see.'

Bruce felt again a terrible feeling of guilt. It was his fault if Alfred was like that. He should have resisted the manipulation but he could not. He had been weak. And when Alfred appeared, being carried on a stretcher towards a room, the feeling of guilt increased. He had to look away.

'Tsh, tsh. It wasn't your fault, Bruce', Selina whispered. 'You were brainwashed.'

'I should have resisted. I SHOULD HAVE RESISTED!'

'You're only sixteen, Bruce. You weren't prepared to what you were going to find when you decided to investigate your parents' deaths. You bit more than you could chew, that's all.'

Bruce kept quiet for a while. Then, he headed for the room where Alfred was.

'Would you mind to leave us alone?'

'Of course, not', Bruce noticed a slight disappointment in Selina's voice. 'Good bye, Bruce, or see you later, I don't know.'

Bruce did not answer. He stood there looking at Alfred. When Selina was about to go out the door, Bruce called her.

'Yes?'

'I'll have you informed if there is anything new. And thanks for coming', he smiled.

'You welcome', Selina smiled too.

**Hello! I hope you liked this alternate version of the conversation between Bruce and Selina in the 22th chapter of the 3rd season of "Gotham". See you in the next chapters, where there will be lots and lots of Bat Cat! **


	2. The Knife

During the following weeks, the Penguin became the master of Gotham thanks to an informal pact with Gotham City Hall and the GCPD, according to which he created a licensing system which would allow a limited number of crimes to be commited, those he authorized. That pact was supported on appropriately distributed bribes, as well as by the work of people like Victor Zsasz, who were in charge of applying the "law" the Penguin had established.

Meanwhile, Selina, who in spite of herself was very impressed by her conversation with Bruce, and especially by his determination to follow his own path, had decided to take a step forward in her life. It was no longer enough for her to survive, now she wanted to live. She wanted to be someone. And to achieve this, she sought and obtained help from Tabitha Galavan, who took care of training her in the handling of the bullwhip (something in which Selina turned out to be very skilled) and in hand-to-hand combat.

Bruce, meanwhile, after Alfred recovered and gave him some good advice, conceived a project —to become a protector of Gotham, a kind of vigilante, which would be useful for him as a training for the moment he had to fight the sinister Ras al Ghul. When he learned about the system of "licenses for crime" that the Penguin had established, his resolution was reinforced. He did not forget about Selina, with whom he had a brief encounter next to the aviary that had been Bridgit Pike's, to inform her that Alfred was fine. There, he learned that Selina had partnered with Tabitha Galavan.

'She isn't someone I would choose as a mentor,' he objected.

'Well, maybe she's the one who is most useful in that task, now that it's legal in Gotham to commit crimes, right?,' Selina replied. 'I've seen the police turn a blind eye when a criminal exhibited one of those licenses issued by the Penguin, so ...'

Bruce sighed. That was true, too true. He considered talking to her about his plan, but then he discarded that possibility. Surely, she would try to dissuade him, and he did not feel like arguing. Not now, when things were reasonably well between them. Maybe it would be better to leave it like that, just friends. The problem was that the slight fluttering in his stomach he felt when she was near made it clear that would not be enough. However, for now, he would have to settle with that. So he said goodbye to her and returned to Wayne Manor.

Some time later, the Penguin inaugurated his new club, "The Iceberg Lounge" (where Edward Nygma frozen inside a huge ice cube was exhibited as a "special attraction"). There Bruce met Selina again; she saw him there and said nothing but went to the roof. Bruce followed her and found her perched on the parapet of the roof. Bruce considered what to tell her.

'Nice dress'.

'I trust you have not come all this way to tell me only that,' Selina replied calmly.

'Of course not. There's something else I wanted to tell you.'

'Then get up there,' she pointed to the parapet.

And Bruce did it.

'So?'

Bruce was silent for a while. The reason was that the fluttering in his stomach had become really strong when he saw Selina with that dress, which left a lot of her skin exposed, so strong was the fluttering that Bruce had forgotten even his name. Selina half sighed half scoffed and made a move to turn around.

'When your mother was with us, I should have told you the truth from the beginning," Bruce finally said.

A very serious expression appeared on the girl's usually impassive face.

'You hurt me, Bruce. A lot.'

'I know. And I'm sorry.'

'And it wasn't the first time you did something similar. Do you remember when you were living in my home for a while?'

'Of course.'

'Then you just left me in the lurch,' an expression of anger appeared for a moment on the girl's face, which was standing on one foot.

Bruce felt very guilty. That was not true, in fact, he had been willing to share with Selina his investigative work about the deaths of his parents, but Alfred had refused to allow it because of the danger she could be in (and what happened weeks later in Indian Hills showed that he was right). He considered telling her about it, but he quickly changed his mind. She had then interpreted (he remembered it very well) that he really regarded her as only "street trash" and that was the real reason he did not want to continue living with her. Worse, later, when he had needed Selina's help to investigate Indian Hill, she had provided it. Had he been wrong then in his choice? He realized that he had. He could very well have spent some time more with her and, away from Alfred's vigilance, have explained everything to her. Surely, she would have understood. But now, it was late. That surely had hurt her, and having lied about her mother had worsened that. Was it too late to fix it? It was to be feared that it was. And suddenly, he knew what he had to say.

'I made the wrong choice that time. Alfred demanded me to choose between you or the investigation about the deaths of my parents. I should have chosen you.'

Bruce noticed that the girl trembled slightly, and that a nervous smile had appeared on her face for a moment. Just at that moment Alfred appeared and scolded them for not behaving like normal teenagers, and took Bruce with him. Bruce could not see that a smile had appeared on Selina's face.

During the next few days, Bruce continued to act as a masked vigilante (Lucius Fox provided him with a special protective suit and Alfred made a cowl for him to cover his face). He got a list of crime licenses granted by the Penguin, and was once arrested by the Gotham Police, although he managed to get out of jail. Selina, Tabitha and Barbara started to set up a gun sale business. And Gordon had to deal with a mutiny in Arkham on his own because no one wanted to go with him (because his opposition to the criminal license system of the Penguin had put all his colleagues against him) and he almost lost his life and sanity when Jonathan Crane (who now had adopted a new persona called "The Scarecrow") sprayed him with his fear gas, which made him decide to seek help from Carmine Falcone to get rid of the Penguin.

Although he did not get Falcone's help, Gordon did get Sofia, Falcone's daughter (for whom he began to be attracted to) to return to Gotham with him. Bruce, meanwhile, made a mysterious discovery —an ancient knife that had been used to embalm a king many years ago, which was related to an ancient portrait of ... Ras al Ghul? That knife had reached Gotham clandestinely to be auctioned along with other items at the Iceberg's Lounge. Bruce decided to get it out any way he could, and he did it, beating Barbara in the bid, and showing himself as bratty as possible.

But that had an unexpected consequence, a night visit by Selina, who asked him for the knife, implying that only then she would be treated as an equal. Bruce already knew that that knife had something to do with Ras al Ghul and he did not want to put the girl in danger. But, on the other hand, he wanted to fix things with her (and certainly the fluttering in his stomach he felt at that moment made it clear again that it was not enough for him to be only friends) and if he said her no, that would spoil everything again. He chose to tell her the truth. Selina looked at him, surprised, but she said nothing.

'I'm sure Ras al Ghul is very interested in this knife. Maybe it's my only way to get to him,' he answered sincerely.

'I see,' the girl replied in a serious tone.

The two young boy and girl were silent for a while. An uncomfortable silence. Bruce was the first to speak.

'You can tell Barbara that although the knife is in my power, you have me wrapped around your pinky and you can get it easily when necessary .'

Selina seemed very interested.

'Best liars always tell the truth,' Bruce added, remembering what happened with Silver StCloud years ago.

'Huh...mmh ... okay,' Selina replied nervously. Had she understood the message? Surely she had

'''I'll be seeing you, OK Bruce?,' she added as she made her way to the study window.

'I hope so,' Bruce smiled.


	3. A Wild Kitten

After getting the knife, Bruce and Alfred took it to a historian named Niles Winthrop for him to tell them more about the knife. The problem was that Ras al Ghul was also very interested, and when he did not get the professor to tell him where exactly he had kept the knife while investigating it, he killed him by breaking his neck. Worse, he later even took Alex, the professor's innocent grandson, as a hostage, to get Bruce to give him the knife, and when Bruce refused, he cut little Alex's throat before Bruce's horrified and impotent eyes. Strangely, then he let himself be arrested by Gordon, who had gone there following Ras. Furious, Bruce decided to kill Ras al Ghul with the damned knife. And his resolution was reinforced when, during the funeral of poor Alex, he heard Gordon tell Alfred that Ras would escape from the punishment thanks to his diplomatic immunity. Just then, he heard a voice behind him.

'Pssst!'

He turned around. Firstly, he saw nothing. But then he saw behind one of the tombs a hood and a pair of steampunk style goggles placed on top.

'Hello, Selina,' he said, approaching her. He saw that the girl was unusually serious.

'Are you all right?,' Selina asked, staring at him.

'No,' Bruce replied sharply. 'I'm sorry,' he added quickly.

'Don't worry. What has happened is really, really sickening. Cutting a helpless child's throat in that way ... when I was told that I didn't want to believe it.'

'It's my fault. If I had given you the knife, maybe this wouldn't have happened,' Bruce sighed.

'Now, that doesn't matter,' Selina shook her head. 'What are you going to do?'

'I'm going to kill Ras al Ghul,' Bruce whispered after making sure he was not being heared.

'No, you won't!,' Selina interrupted him, visibly worried. 'You won't do such a thing!'

'Thanks for your concern, but it is decided. This very night I'll enter Blackgate prison, I'll look for Ras al Ghul and I'll kill him with that knife.'

Selina looked at him with an inscrutable expression, then, she nodded.

'I'm going with you.'

'No way!'

'If you don't let me go with you, I'll snitch you to Gordon and I'll make sure he keeps you in a cell for as long as it takes for me to get rid of that psycho. Is that clear?,' Selina hit Bruce's chest with her finger.

'You wouldn't dare!'

'Do you want to put me to the test?,' Selina crossed her arms and looked at him defiantly.

'OK,' sighed Bruce. 'You can come with me.'

That night Bruce was in front of the prison, wearing the special suit Lucius Fox had given him and the cowl Alfred had made for him. He hoped that Selina would not appear. But that did not happen, since the girl appeared at the time she had said. She was wearing a very tight black leather suit, and there was something else hanging from her waist that caught Bruce's attention —a bullwhip.

They easily entered the prison using a rope with a hook. But, as Selina observed, that meant nothing —the difficult thing would be to get out. They decided to go separately. Bruce would use his social position to make his way to Ras al Ghul and Selina would enter using her sneaking skills. They arrived easily (too easily, Bruce thought) to Ras al Ghul's cell. But there, Bruce hesitated. He made a move to turn around but at that moment a handful of assassins (perhaps members of the League of Shadows) ambushed them. Selina was taken elsewhere and Bruce was taken to a basement where Ras al Ghul was too.

There, the latter told a strange story. Apparently he was many centuries old thanks to a mysterious element called "Lazarus pits" but he was tired of being almost immortal and had decided to die. Supposedly, only Bruce could kill him, using the knife, because according to Ras, a prophetic vision had revealed Bruce as his heir, and only his heir could kill him. But Bruce resisted. Then, Ras started to taunt him.

'I remind you that that wild kitten that came with you is in the hands of my people, Bruce Wayne. You can go. But she will be still in my hands. And I can have her tortured by my men in ways you wouldn't even consider possible. And not only that, they can do it so that she doesn't die.'

Bruce imagined Selina just as Ras al Ghul was saying, and he felt anger rising within him. He raised the dagger that had cost the lives of Niles and Alex Winthrop. A single blow, and all would be over. Ras kept taunting him.

'My men can see what is happening there through those cameras. If you don't kill me, they'll take your little friend and start torturing her right now. They will make her suffer in a way you can't even imagine. They will make that wild kitty become a human spoil, but still alive. They will make that wild kitty beg for her death ...'

At that moment, a sound of sarcastic applause was heard. Bruce and Ras looked surprised at the place where it came from.

'What this wild kitty is going to do is dying of boredom if you continue with that tosh!,' Selina exclaimed, appearing just before their eyes. Bruce could see that her fingers were covered in blood and a substance he preferred not to know what it was. She had her switchblade knife, which was also bloody, in her hand. Bruce felt an immense joy at seeing her, but he tried to hide it.

'How ... how could you escape from my trained assassins?'

Selina shook her head and smiled in that way that Gotham's viewers know well, a mixture of annoyance and mockery.

'You know? They can be trained killers, maybe, but it has been very easy for me to get rid of them. I just used a trick I learned in one of the many juvies I've been to —go straight to their eyes,' she raised her fingers and Bruce felt a slight nausea —that mysterious substance was obviously eyeball bits. The rest has been as simple as ABC, with a little help from these two little friends of mine,' she raised her bloody knife, which she closed, and touched her bullwhip with her hand.

'Awesome. You're really a warrior,' Ras al Ghul nodded.

'Thank you!,' Selina exclaimed, bowing. 'But right back on the horse. Apparently, you're very interested in Bruce killing you. But, you see, I like Bruce just the way he is. I have no interest in him becoming a murderer. So, what if we make a deal and instead of he killing you, I'll kill you? You won't be the first person I kill, and besides that, taking into account what you have done, I won't have the slightest difficulty. Conversely, it's even possible that Bruce's hand will hesitate. Deal?'

'It's a tempting offer. But it's not possible. He has to be the one to kill me. He will be my heir.'

Selina snorted and shook her head.

'Nobody beats you in stubborness, huh? Sorry, but no. Do you mind bending over so I can go through your heart more easily? I'm very short, you know?,' she picked up her switchblade knife and opened it again.

'That wouldn't work. Centuries ago I bathed in the Lazarus Pit, which made me virtually immortal. Only my heir, using that knife,' he pointed to Bruce, who was still holding the embalming knife, 'will be able to do so.'

'Then we have a problem,' Selina exclaimed nonchalantly. 'I have a huge desire to kill you after what you've done to him,' he pointed to Bruce, 'but apparently I can't. Bruce can but doesn't want to do it and I don't want him to kill you because I don't want him to become a murderer.'

'Stupid girl. You're talking about things you don't even understand. You 're talking about a power that ...'

'Power?,' Selina cut him off mockingly. She grabbed Bruce's hand that was holding the embalming knife and took a few steps toward Ras. Bruce followed her. Selina kept talking.

'What can you know about power? Do you want to know what real power is? Power is someone getting you to risk your neck again and again without more than asking, or even without having to ask, when you normally would not take risk for anything or anyone. Power is not only that someone geting you to do those things but also you not regretting it at all. Power is that someone being so important to you that you can't forget him or her, no matter how hard you try. Power is to achieve all that without resorting to magic tricks or brainwashing as you do, you pathetic monster.'

An absurd idea (or it wasn't?) crossed Bruce's mind. "She's talking about _you_. She means _you_!" But before he could proceed with his thoughts, Selina suddenly squeezed that Bruce's hand she was holding, and moved it swiftly forward, making the blade of the embalming knife, which Bruce still had in his hand, sink into Ras al Ghul's chest. Selina pushed him back a bit. And then, something surprising happened. Ras al Ghul transformed quickly into a sort of wizened and crumpled mummy covered by his clothes.

Bruce was speechless. He was not sure what had really happened, and he did not know that Selina could be so fierce. Or he did? He had already seen her kill Reginald Payne by pushing him out of a window. And she was training with Tabitha Galavan, who had evidently taught her one or two things. He was not sure what he should do. But then, Selina turned to him and an expression of concern appeared on her face.

'Are you OK?'

'Yeah, I think so.'

'Sure?'

'Yes, yes,' Bruce nodded.

Just then Jim Gordon and Alfred appeared, each of them with a gun. They looked at the mummy of Ras al Ghul and then at Selina's bloody hands.

'Yes, yes, that was Ras al Ghul and I have just bumped him off,' the girl replied in a tone between exasperated and bored. 'He has become what you are seeing there.'

Gordon and Alfred lowered their guns and looked at each other.

'Are you going to arrest me, cop?,' Selina asked Gordon. 'Don't worry, I won't resist. But I warn you that if you try to arrest Bruce too, you'll regret it,' a ferocious expression appeared on Selina's face again.

'What happened?,' Gordon asked. 'First you, Bruce.'

Bruce explained what had happened. Gordon and Alfred listened carefully. When he finished speaking, Gordon put his gun away.

'You can leave, Selina.'

'Aren't you going to arrest me?'

'I'm not. I'll say that the men of the League of Shadows supplanted the guards, killed Ras al Ghul and mummified his corpse in some kind of ritual,' Gordon answered, and Alfred nodded.

They left the prison. Bruce, then, asked Selina,

'When you were talking to Ras al Ghul about power, did you mean someone in particular?'

Selina looked at him, rolled her eyes, sighed deeply with an annoyed expression, and shook her head.


	4. Visiting Lee Thompkins

What happened that night in the Blackgate penitentiary left Bruce greatly impacted. He decided to temporarily abandon his occasional activity as a masked vigilante, and handed the special suit to Alfred. Punching a robber several times was one thing, killing was another very different, no matter how much someone deserved it and no matter if he had not been really the one who delivered the fatal blow. He also felt very confused about Selina. His mind told him that what he had heard from her was almost a declaration of love. And that the "power" Selina had mentioned to Ras al Ghul was nothing more nor less than Love. But, on the other hand, why had not she openly told him "Bruce, I love you"? Why had not she even given him a kiss? And he was not sure what to think about the ferocity the girl had shown that night.

"I wish you were here with me, Mom," he said sadly one day as he put flowers on Martha Wayne's grave. "You could explain some things to me about how girls think".

During the following days, while Butch Gilzean awoke from the coma and became "Solomon Grundy"; while Sofia Falcone played a two-way game between Gordon and the Penguin in order to gain power in Gotham; and while Edward Nygma, having been thawed by a "fan" of his, sought to recover his intelligence (which he had apparently lost) by all possible means and met unexpectedly with "Solomon Grundy", Bruce did not see Selina and was moody and depressed. And he was more so as a charity auction to be held at Wayne Manor approached. He had no desire to be there, to shake hands with people he despised or smile when he felt sad and lonely. Alfred, however, reminded him that he was Bruce Wayne and that it involved obligations.

A few days before that auction, coinciding with the first murder of "Professor Pyg", Bruce was in his bed trying to sleep without success (the sun was already rising and he had only managed to doze a little) when he noticed that someone was touching his face. He opened his eyes, startled. It was Selina.

'What are you doing here?,' he asked cautiously. 'Are you here to steal, maybe?

'That hadn't crossed my mind, but if you wish I'll take a look to see if there's anything here I can sell to any of the fences I know,' the girl answered in that sarcastic tone so typical of her. 'But no, I'm not here for that. I have come here to suggest to you that we take a tour together through the Narrows.'

Bruce hesitated.

'What is that so terribly important that you have to do and that keeps you from coming with me?,' the girl asked, climbing onto Bruce's bed.

'Er ... nothing.'

'What are you waiting for? Come on, get dressed and let's go now.'

Bruce got out of bed, picked up some clothes and prepared to get dressed. But then, he noticed a problem —Selina was there with him and she kept looking at him.

'Can you ... can you turn around?,' he asked in a shy tone.

'As you wish,' the girl answered, turning around. 'Although, frankly, I don't think you have anything to be ashamed of. What's more, I'd even say you're pretty gorgeous,' she added cheekily as she chuckled.

Bruce felt his face was burning, but he did not answer. He changed clothes quickly. Since he had his back to her, he could not see Selina casting a fleeting glance and smiling mischievously.

They left the bedroom, making sure not to make noise. Selina picked up the ignition keys of one of the cars in the garage of the Wayne Manor, then, the two young men went to the garage and drove out there, with Bruce behind the wheel.

While driving to the Narrows, Selina told him that the Penguin and Sophia Falcone had allied to control Gotham, and that Victor Zsasz had killed several former mafiosi who were former allies of Carmine Falcone. She told him about a club where illegal fights were held and about a fighter named "Solomon Grundy". She also told him about how she, Barbara and Tabitha had set up a business of selling weapons.

'You sell weapons to criminals?,' Bruce scolded her softly.

'Are you going to give me a telling-off for that? Wayne Enterprises sells weapons in huge quantities, and the people who buy them are not exactly angels,' the girl snorted in an exasperated tone.

'It's true,' Bruce admitted; he knew from Lucius Fox that Wayne Enterprises actually sold weapons to countries at war and that these weapons were used to perpetrate crimes against civilian populations.

Selina told him to stop the car in front of an old apartment building. They got out of the car and then Selina did something strange —she started taking water with her hands from a huge puddle and sprayed the car with it.

'What are you doing?'

'This car seems too new. If we leave it like this, when we leave the place where we're going, only its body will remain because the rest of its pieces will have been stolen. You have to mess it up to make it less attractive for burglars. Trust me, I have helped to dismantle cars for selling their pieces lots of times.'

Bruce nodded, and started helping Selina to dirty his car. He even took a key to scratch the car with it but Selina stopped him. In addition to dirtying the car, they took garbage from the ground and used it to deliberately dirty the seats. When the car was really dirty, Selina nodded.

'Better. Come on, Bruce.'

They entered the building. After climbing several floors (the elevator did not work and in a neighborhood like that it was impossible to find a technician to repair it) they stopped in front of a door. They knocked, and the door was opened by a very tall man, who was wearing a green suit and a black bowler hat, and who smiled in a strange way. His face was familiar to Bruce but he did not remember why.

'Hello, Cat,' the man said, still smiling. 'Well, well, well, it seems that the rich heir of the Wayne family has deigned to visit us,' he looked at Bruce with contempt.

'What are you doing here, Ed?,' Selina frowned.

'Only business, Cat,' the one named Ed looked back and Bruce could see ... Dr. Lee Thompkins, Jim Gordon's ex-girlfriend? What was she doing there? And then, Bruce remembered. That guy was Edward Nygma, the former GCPD forensic expert, who had framed Gordon and made him go to jail, and who had earned later a sad reputation as the criminal nicknamed "The Riddler".

'Leave us alone, Ed,' Lee Thompkins said before Bruce could say anything.

'Have a nice day, Lee,' Ed Nygma said, raising his hat slightly, then, he left.

'What was he doing here?,' Selina asked, frowning.

'I'm running out of medicine and I need money,' Lee replied, looking down.

'And the solution is for him to give it to you, isn't it,' Selina shook her head. 'Lee, you're a good person. You shouldn't make deals with a guy like Ed Nygma.'

'What alternative do I have? There are many poor people here who need my help,' Lee sighed . 'Here, nobody has a health insurance, and the government doesn't want to do anything about these neighborhoods. In addition, Ed has changed. He's no longer "the Riddler".'

Selina rolled her eyes and sighed, as if to say "how naive are you".

Bruce, on the other hand, had looked around. He saw that Lee Thompkins had set up a clinic in the apartment, but he saw too that the clinic was not very well equipped. Obviously, she did not have the means to do much, and she would surely have to resort to unclear means to procure medicines and medical supplies. He knew what he had to do.

'Doctor Thompkins, if you wish, I can make some calls for the Wayne foundation to provide you with everything you need.'

'Would you really do it?,' Lee looked at him hopefully.

'Of course I would,' Bruce nodded.

Since he was with his back to her, Bruce could not see that on Selina's face, normally inscrutable, had appeared for a moment an expression of tenderness. But Dr. Lee did see it. Because she said,

'Selina, can you leave us alone?'

'Sure, that's what we're here for, don't you remember it?,' Selina nodded.

Selina left them alone. Bruce was a little embarrassed. What was happening here? Lee invited him to accompany him to her office. They sat face to face, with a table between them.

'You see, Bruce. A few days ago, Selina came here to have stitches on a knife wound that was inflicted to her in a street fight,' Bruce shuddered. 'Let's say, while I was curing her, we talked. Afterwards, we've seen each other more times, and I've got her to tell me more and more things. And let's say that you occupied an important part of our conversations.'

Bruce began to feel uncomfortable. He suspected where Dr. Thompkins wanted to go and he was not sure he wanted to talk about it.

'I... I don't know what you're talking about.'

'I think you do, Bruce,' Lee smiled. 'You see, Selina is very reserved. It's normal, if you consider the kind of life she has. But, as a doctor, I know how to get people to open up, to them tell you their stories. Especially people who are very needy to have someone to listen to them, to give them advice.'

'Is that what you do here with these people? Not only do you listen to them, do you also heal them?'

'Right, Bruce. With the means I have, I can't do much to cure them. But what I can do is listen to them. And believe me, they need that almost as much as medicine.'

'And Selina needs someone to listen to her too?'

'Yes. You must think she has had to survive on her own since she was six years old. She is used to taking care of herself and getting by on her own. Sometimes, she may seem selfish, but she isn't. Her way of thinking is that she shouldnt stick to anyone because that can lead her to depend on that person and that person can fail her. And many, many people she has met have failed her or have disappeared from her life. The problem is this, she has found someòne with whom that way of thinking doesn't work.'

'Are you... are you talking about me?'

'That's it. I'm talking about you.'

'I... I don't understand.'

'I'll tell you very clearly. Selina loves you. She doesn't only "likes" you. She does _love_ you. And that terrifies her and confuses her. She'd like to keep you at a distance, you and he being only good friends because she fear that loving you will make her vulnerable. But, on the other hand, she doesn't stand the idea of you disappearing from her life, and she fears that if she continues like that, that will be what will happen.'

'I ... I don't know what to think of her. It seems that nothing matters to her, that she doesn't care about anything other than herself. And yet, more than once she has risked her neck to help me.'

'It's true, Selina seems unconcerned about everything, but I can assure you that this is just a mask she puts on because in that way it's easier for her to survive in these violent neighborhoods. She also believes that indeed she doesn't care about anything other than her, that's the way she is and that's it. But her actions show something very different. That's the important thing, Bruce. Not what she seems to be, or what she thinks she is. The important thing is what she _chooses_ to do. In this case, what really matters is that she was there whenever you needed it, even if she was a bit annoyed with you or you needed her for something dangerous.'

'You're right," Bruce admitted. 'What I can do?'

'Above all, give her space. Don't try to make her your girlfriend at all costs. She's a lonely heart, and she's used to not depend on anyone, and being your girlfriend would be a radical change in that. Make her part of your life, but go slowly. When the time comes, trust her things. Take her as your confidant. And, slowly, you'll get her to open her heart to you.'

Bruce thought about the charity auction he would celebrate a few days later at Wayne Manor, and decided it might be a good idea to invite Selina there. He proposed it to the doctor.

'It's a good start. But I suggest that you do that in such a way it looks like that Selina is doing you a favor by going there. It mustn't seem that what really is happening is that you want her company.'

Bruce thought for a while and suddenly he had an idea.

'I think I know what you're meaning, doctor. Thank you and goodbye.'

He went out and saw that Selina was balancing on the railing of the stairs. He waited for her to end because he did not want to distract her and make her fall. When she finally descended from the railing, Bruce said,

'Can I ask you a favor?'

'Yes?'

'In a few days, I'll have a charity auction at Wayne Manor. Since I'm almost of age, there will surely be a lot of gold diggers there. Could you come too, to protect me from them?'

'All right!,' Selina nodded nonchalantly.


	5. The charity auction

The two young people spent the whole day together. At Bruce's request, they visited the club of illegal fights (which Selina had heard about but she had never seen) in which "Solomon Grundy" was the master, and there they got a surprise —the Grundy guy, whom they saw fighting, was nothing but Butch, the mobster who had been the right hand of the Penguin and who had later become the master of Gotham, but now transformed into a mutant zombie with pale skin and superhuman strength. Bruce suggested that perhaps he had been a victim of Hugo Strange's experiments and Selina accepted it was a plausible hypothesis. They also saw Edward Nygma parody the Penguin among the laughter of the rabble there.

'I think Tabitha and Barbara have to know about this,' Selina said, smiling mischievously.

They also decided that on the day of the charity auction Bruce would pick up Selina by car and take her to Wayne Manor. A problem arose, that Selina had no smart clothes to wear, but Bruce took her to a clothing store and, after many doubts and trying on many dresses (Bruce insisted a lot on this and finally he convinced the reticent young woman, that had raised the possibility of simply "borrowing" the dress) they chose an elegant black dress.

At dusk, after leaving Selina at Barbara Kean's home (she offered to help Selina comb and makeup), Bruce returned to the mansion Wayne, and there, he found Alfred and Gordon.

'Where were you, young man?,' Alfred scolded. 'We were very worried about you!'

'I was with Selina,' Bruce answered. 'Visiting the areas of Gotham where she lives. And you must know we have had a great time together.'

It was very true. It was surprising that, despite how different they were, Bruce enjoyed the girl's company so much. However, Alfred did not seem very convinced.

'I imagined it. Well, you know that I liked the experience and I intend to repeat it,' said Bruce.

'It's dangerous, master Bruce! Besides, Miss Kyle is not ...!'

'She's not what? She's not WHAT, Alfred? Come on, say it!'

'It doesn't matter,' Alfred surrendered.

'Alfred,' Gordon interjected. 'I understand you're nervous about what happened, but I'm sure Bruce is safer with that little shrew next to him,' he smiled, "than with twenty Gotham cops who are probably bought by the Penguin. She's as concerned about Bruce's safety and welfare as you or me.'

'Do you think so?'

'I'm sure. Also ... let Bruce be able to act like a normal teenager,' he patted Bruce's shoulder affectionately. 'A normal teenager who breaks the rules so he can hang out with the girl he likes,' Gordon winked. 'I also disobeyed my parents sometimes to spend more time with friends and especially with _female_ friends.'

Bruce felt such a surge of affection for Gordon that, had he been four or five years younger, surely he would have hugged him. But he was not a child anymore, so he held back.

'Fine,' Alfred sighed again. 'If you don't mind, I'll continue with the preparations for the charity auction.'

Alfred left the garage. Bruce and Gordon stayed for a while chatting alone, man to man. Bruce told the policeman his conversation with Dr. Lee Thompkins, and also told him about Edward Nygma and Butch Gilzean, who was now transformed into "Solomon Grundy." Gordon, meanwhile, mentioned a strange and disturbing case in which he was working, that of a murderer of corrupt police officers, who also decorated their corpses with pig heads.

'He's not that guy the press has nicknamed "Professor Pyg"?'

'That same one. Besides, he has seriously injured my friend Harvey Bullock. But that's not the worst.'

'What can be worse?'

'This, I have discovered that Bullock is corrupt. The Penguin has bought him for him to turn a blind eye to his system of criminal licenses.'

Bruce nodded. He understood perfectly that Gordon, on the one hand, wanted to put an end to police corruption, but on the other, he did not want to destroy his friend personally and professionally. He remained thoughtful for a while.

'You have to lead by example, Jim. That's what my father taught me. If you only try to convince people, they won't listen to you, but if you set them a good example, you will drag many of them. That's what you have to do. They have to see that you are better than the Penguin thugs. When they see you, they will feel ashamed and want to imitate you. Maybe not all, but most.'

Gordon nodded, smiled and put his hands on Bruce´s shoulders.

'How much time has passed since we met, that night in the alley. You are no longer that frightened and confused child. Now you are all a man. I told you then that behind the darkness there will be light and I maintain it. People like you are the light that this city needs.

Bruce blushed a little, much in spite of himself.

'Thanks, Jim.'

The day of the charity auction arrived. As promised, Bruce went to pick up Selina.

'Ready, Mr. Wayne?,' Barbara asked, holding a doorknob.

'Ready.'

'Tadaa!,' she opened the door.

'Bruce opened his mouth and slammed it shut. Certainly Barbara had worked hard. Normally, Selina took little care of her physical appearance. But not this time. She was really, really pretty. The dress suited her very well. Above all, she was well combed. She did not wear much makeup, but the little she wore (a bit of eyeshadow, some rouge, and a red lipstick) looked really good on her.

'Say something,' Selina mused.

'You're dazzling.'

'Selina smiled for a moment, then returned to her usual "I don't care" pose.

'Have fun, lovebirds,' laughed Barbara.

The truth was that the charity auction was anything but fun. All the attendees were very kind to him, yes, but it was a feigned kindness. Many had known Thomas and Martha and they kept telling stories about how wonderful they were. But Bruce had the feeling that they only did it to earn his appreciation.

'What a bunch of two-faced assholes, don't you think so?,' Selina whispered. 'This riff-raff just wants your money. Where were they when your father tried to end corruption in Wayne Enterprises?'

'Surely, helping the Court of Owls to perpetrate his murder," Bruce sighed.

But the worst things were the girls who came to the party. They all seemed silly and superficial compared to Selina. However, they all tried to flirt with Bruce. Especially a former Bruce's schoolmate named Grace, who was really very pretty. When she started talking to Bruce in a very seductive tone, Selina gave her a murderous look.

'Bruce, are you coming?,' she grabbed his arm.

Bruce felt he should not leave Grace behind, because it would be rude. But on the other hand, he did not want to talk with her either. So he let himself be dragged by Selina.

'Where are you going, Bruce?,' Grace asked, going after them.

'To get laid, you busty bitch,' Selina whispered, bringing her face close to Grace's face.

Bruce was speechless. When Grace looked at him, he only could babble. However, he did not say no. Perhaps, deep down, that idea did not displease him. So Grace looked at him with disappointment and left again. They went to Bruce's room and entered.

'Hey, what did you say before, you really meant it?' Bruce asked, nervous.

'Of course not, you douchebag. It was just a trick to drive away that two-faced bitch who is willing to get into your pants. And, besides, you have an excuse to get away from all those people. Don't tell me you were having a good time.'

'To be honest, I wasn't,' Bruce nodded; for a moment he had fantasized about the possibility of losing his virginity.

'And if someone comes through here, we can ... well, make some noise for them to believe it,' Selina smiled mischievously.

And the truth is that it worked. Bruce and Selina spent the rest of the auction in Bruce's bedroom, talking about each of their things. Selina told stories of the poor neighborhoods, and Bruce told stories about his travels, about when he was in the Anders academy and about the books he had read. And to his surprise, he learned that Selina had read a lot too, although obviously she had had to steal the books.

I'm sorry to say they did not kiss or make out. But both were very comfortable together and talking. On one occasion, Alfred knocked on the door, but then, Bruce and Selina started to feign gasps and moanings, to shout out loud very dirty phrases and even to move the bed causing it to hit the wall, so that it would seem that hey were having a very passionate sex, so they were left alone. At nightfall, Alfred called again.

'The guests are leaving, Master Bruce. You should go and say them goodbye.'

'I'm coming, Alfred. Wait until I get dressed.'

The truth is that Bruce was fully dressed, the same as Selina, but they wanted to keep the fiction, so he chose to wait a bit. When he was about to leave, Selina said,

'We are too well dressed. No one is going to believe that we have been having sex for hours.'

'It's true.'

So the two youngsters ruffled their hair and disarranged their clothes to make it look like they had put them on very fast, and left. Bruce had the feeling that all the guests were looking at him and chose to play the innocent. Alfred questioned him with his eyes, but Bruce pretended not to notice. Selina looked for Grace, and found her.

'You know that Bruce is a real stallion, bitch," she whispered, putting a hand on her shoulder.

**Hi! I hope you have enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I writing it. Bat-hugs for everyone!**


	6. The Penguin blackmails The Cat

In the following days, Professor Pyg's case became more twisted than ever. Firstly, on the same day of the charity auction, all the officers in Gotham's central police station where Gordon worked received by mail a pig head each one, except precisely Gordon. Several agents were kidnapped, and the Penguin, worried about the effect that all this had on his business, offered the "help" of his cronies to search for the missing agents, something in which a clue was obtained that led them to an old disused court (and, during the search, the police behaved as if they were mere thugs).

Meanwhile, things were not going well for Selina, really no. Barbara said that the arms sales business, without Ras al Ghul's money, would have to close and the three would have to separate. Selina suggested robbing a group of bikers, in order to keep the group together, and although they did it, it almost cost them their lives. She began to wonder if she would ever do something other than survive, because in fact she had not achieved much by associating with Barbara and Tabitha, and besides, the last day with Bruce had made her want more than ever to leave that kind life. But how? Did she think of Bruce as her Charming Prince who would rescue her from the gutter? She felt ashamed for thinking that. Perhaps it would be best for her to forget Bruce completely.

'Don't even think about doing that,' Barbara said when Selina came up with the idea, and Tabitha nodded.

'This can't work out, it can't. We are too different.'

'And how do you know that this you have won't work if you don't even try?,' Tabitha contradicted her. 'Besides, Bruce Wayne is as much in love with you as you are with him.'

'I'm not in love with him!'

'Oh, Selina, before, you used to be a much better liar!,' Barbara grinned mischievously. 'I bet you spend most part of the day thinking of him. And surely he's all day thinking of you too.'

'I don't think so. I'm just street trash.'

'That is the greatness of love, sweetheart,' Tabitha touched her shoulder in a maternal gesture. 'Differences don't count, no matter how big they are. Only _this_ counts,' she touched Selina's heart.

'Bruce has never told me he's in love with me.'

'Liar ... in fact, he has, some time ago, you don't remember? That he liked you, as more than a friend,' Barbara winked.

'That went wrong.'

'But both of you have matured since then. You have learned from your mistakes. I think you should try it again,' Tabitha said.

'I agree,' Barbara nodded. 'Even if it goes wrong, I think it's worth it. What I had with Jim went wrong, but I'm not sorry I tried it.'

'You may be right,' Selina looked down. 'What should I do?'

'Never lose sight of him. And if one day he proposes to you that you should do something together, tell him OK.'

Bruce, on the other hand, could no longer fool himself about how he saw Selina. He was madly in love with her, and during a visit to Dr. Lee Thompkins to make sure that supplies of medications from the Wayne Foundation arrived without problems at her clinic (they did) he told her how he felt about Selina, and she agreed. He was in love. He did not see her only as a friend anymore, now, he truly loved her.

'I don't know what to do. We are very different, we live in different universes. I'm not sure this is going to work.'

'Go step by step, Bruce. It's necessary for you to spend more time together so that you can see if a romantic relationship can work. So look for more time to be alone with her.'

'Do you want to say a date?'

'I want to say a date but a date which doesn't look like a date. I don't know if you understand me.

Bruce understood it very well, he remembered Selina's reticence some time ago to being called Bruce's "girlfriend", even though she later acted as if she was.

'I'll do it. Thanks, Lee.'

'You're welcome. And Bruce ... say hello to Jim from me.'

But before Bruce could ask Selina for a date, something happened. The day after the biker robbery, when Selina was walking alone, a car stopped beside her. From the car, two sour-face men came out and grabbed her with violence, put a sack on her head, tied her hands and took her to the car again. The car drove away quickly. When Selina's head sack was removed, she found herself in a luxuriously furnished office, tied hand and foot to a chair, and she saw the Penguin smiling evilly. As Selina knew well, when the Penguin smiled like that, it was very likely that the next thing he did was stabbing you or maybe hitting you again and again .

'Hi, Cat,' the Penguin smiled even more. 'Nice to see you again.'

Selina just snorted.

'I'm sorry I can't say the same thing. What do you want from me?'

'Always to the point, huh? That's one of the things I like about you, dear,' the Penguin smiled again and pinched Selina's cheeks . 'You see, those bikers you robbed are very, very angry. Because they were licensed to commit crimes, and their licenses where granted by myself. But you, you weren't. Obviously, if I want to be respected, I have to punish you. I thought about sending you a couple of assassins to tore off your fingers, to take out your eyes, to disembowel you and to cut off your tongues. But, at least in your case, I have found a much better punishment.'

'Are you softening, Penguin?,' Selina scoffed .

'Grace, come in!,' the Penguin shouted.

And Grace, the same girl who at the auction had made Selina have a fit of jealousy, came into the office. She approached her.

'Do you remember me? I'm the girl you called "busty bitch." Maybe you screwed Bruce, but you won't get away with it. You won't stay with him. Right, Mr. Cobblepot?'

'Right,' the Penguin laughed. 'It's amazing how malignant jealous women can be. This girl hates you so much she asked me for help to teach you a lesson.'

Selina moved her head from side to side and laughed, as if that did not matter really much. Although she was in fact scared to death. If what the Penguin was saying was true, and everything indicated it was, her situation looked very, very bad. And when the Penguin pulled a razor-sharp knife from the handle of his cane, a fear expression appeared on the girl's face.

'You see, dear. She wanted me to mark your face and cut off your nose, ears and ... well, breasts,' as he spoke, he stroked each of those parts of the terrified Selina's body with the blade of his knife,' to make sure that Bruce Wayne felt nothing but horror towards you.'

'What are you waiting for? Do it! Let 's finish, now!,' Selina was breathing rapidly because of fear. 'So, in addition, you will have punished me for the robbery of the bikers!'

'As I was saying, my dear, I have found a much better way to punish you. And, by the way, to satisfy this lovely girl. It's cleaner, but it will achieve the same result.'

'Are you sure, Mr. Cobblepot?,' Grace asked.

'Yes, I am. You see, my dear,' the Penguin looked at Selina and smiled again, 'I have, thanks to my excellent spy groups, a complete file about your criminal activities. Imagine all that falling into the hands of Bruce Wayne. He wouldn't like to know who the girl he has fallen in love with really is.'

'Oh, come on! Bruce is not in love with me!'

'Oh, Cat , love has damaged your prodigious ability to lie!,' the Penguin laughed, but it was a false, diabolical laugh. 'This young woman told me otherwise,' he looked at Grace, who nodded. 'That he looked at you like only the boys in love do. And if she saw that, you too. Girls always see that.'

Selina lowered her eyes, defeated. It was true, too true. She had been fooling herself about that. Maybe because she was terrified about she and Bruce starting a serious relationship. Unfortunately, the Penguin noticed what she was thinking at that moment.

'I see we understand each other, huh, Cat? As I say, I can make sure you young Wayne receives a complete account of everything you have done up to today. Above all, of all times you looked away while other people were killed in front of your eyes. I don't think he likes that much, right?'

'I don't know if that will be enough. Bruce is generous. Maybe if she pretends she's really sorry, he will forgive that,' Grace objected.

In fact, Selina was clinging to that hope. Bruce knew how to forgive, she was sure of that. He had even been unable to kill Matches Malone, the murderer of his parents!

'He won't, if he finds out that Selina looked away while someone was murdering ... his parents.'

Selina paled. How had the Penguin known about that, her guilty secret?

'Ooooh, then my assumptions were true!,' the Penguin patted with joy. 'I wasn't sure they were, but your face leaves no doubt about that, my dear. Am I right, then? Were you there, the night Bruce's parents were killed, and you didn't do anything, you didn't scream, you didn't call the police, you didn't intervene, you only stared?

Selina looked down. There was nothing to do. Bruce would not forgive her that.

'I see things are becoming really clear between us, Kitty Cat. I know you see young Wayne as a kind of Prince Charming that one day will take you out of the gutter. I know he has given you hope. And taking away your hope, it seemed to me a much better punishment than simply taking away parts of your body. After all, maybe Mr. Wayne doesn't care if you're mutilated. But he _will_ care that you could have done something to help his parents ... and you did not. And we all know why you behaved like that, right?,' he got up and put his face close to Selina's .

"Of course", the girl thought. "Because I did not care. Because I was not willing to risk my neck for anyone. That is what I am. Bruce will never love someone like me. He will be better without me."

'With this I have enough, Mr. Cobblepot . Sorry for having doubted you.'

'You're welcome, Miss Blomdahl. Have a nice day.'

Grace came out. Penguin, then, stared at Selina .

'You see, dear. I know you consider me a monster of cruelty. But I am merciful. I have decided that at least for the moment I am not going to reveal this information to young Wayne.'

'Am I supposed to thank you for that?,' Selina looked at him scornfully.

'No, you aren't. Just do what I order you. And if you don't ... you understand me, right?'

Selina paused. She hated working for the Penguin. But she did not want Bruce to know the truth about her. Losing Bruce, now she saw it clearly, would mean losing all hope in her life.

'That's blackmail.'

'This is Gotham, beautiful. And, yes, that is exactly what it is. Report me for it. Now tell me, have you understood me correctly?'

'Yes,' she whispered, holding her tears.

'You'll do what I order, exactly as I order?'

'YES I WILL!'


	7. Hiking with Alfred

The first mission the Penguin gave to Selina was to kidnap Edward Nygma and bring him to his presence, because the former was furious that the latter publicly imitated him in a burlesque way. He warned the girl that if they did not bring him before sunset, he would tell Bruce everything. Selina accepted reluctantly, but on the other hand, since she, Tabitha and Barbara had unfinished business with Nygma, none of the three had too much trouble doing what the Penguin asked them to do. Selina, who was the one who knew the Narrows, was in charge of guiding Tabitha and Barbara to the illegal fight club.

As we all know, things did not go as expected. Tabitha was distracted by the sight of Butch/Solomon Grundy (of whom Selina had not spoken, fearing, as it happened, that it would take them away from their mission) and Barbara was distracted by the sight of Lee. Selina managed to tie and gag Nygma, but as they had separated they could not get out of there and ended up cornered, and to get out alive, Selina proposed to settle things with a fight between Butch/Grundy and Tabitha, which was a common practice in the Narrows. Tabitha managed to get out of the fight alive but then they found a new surprise —the Penguin had sent Bridgit Pike/Firefly behind them, and she almost burned them alive. Fortunately, Lee managed to deactivate Bridgit's flamethrower, but she did not consent Nygma to be taken from there. Barbara, meanwhile, killed Cherry, the owner of the illegal fight club, after deducting with the help of Lee that she was the one who had ratted them to the Penguin. And the consequence was that Lee became queen of the Narrows.

That same day, the Penguin made a new friend, an orphaned and mute child, victim of bullying, named Martin. While teaching him how to retaliate against his enemies by pretending to be friends with some of them and thus turning them against each other, he began to suspect that perhaps Sofia Falcone, who was supposedly his friend, was using that friendship for her own purposes. And his suspicions grew when he learned that James Gordon had been appointed captain of the Central Precinct of the GCPD. Gordon suspected the same and told her so, but she answered that this had been necessary to make it possible to dismiss the incompetent Bullock.

That night, Selina barely slept. In her nightmares, she saw the Penguin talking to Bruce, and telling him all kinds of details about her past life, and Bruce insulting her. She also relived the scene of the murder of Bruce's parents again and again, but in her nightmares, little Bruce, instead of falling to his knees next to the corpses of his parents, got up, pointed to her and insulted her again and again. She considered going to see Bruce and confessing him everything, but she did not dare. She resigned himself to her fate. Maybe it would be better that way, each one by his or her side.

However, the next day nothing happened. Perhaps it was because the Penguin, furious with Sofia, forgot to carry out the threat he had made to Selina and instead went to see Sofia at the Falcone orphanage, where she was preparing a charity event for that day, to ask her for explanations. She did not deny being the responsible one, she only said that it was for Penguin's good, something that the latter did not believe. However, that was forgotten when the event took a macabre and unexpected turn —Professor Pyg appeared and forced the guests to eat pies made with beggars guts in exchange for not killing Martin, the Penguin's silent orphan child friend. Faced with the reluctance of some, who even said with contempt that nothing was wrong if Pyg killed Martin ("he is just an orphan," someone said) the Penguin stabbed one of those present in his skull and he himself began to eat the disgusting pie. And Sofia too, although she had to be helped by the Penguin, because Pyg had stabbed her in one hand. It was Gordon who saved the situation. Pyg was arrested while the Penguin reconciled with Sofia, since he was very impressed that she had been willing to participate in that cannibal feast to save Martin. Shocked by what had just happened, he agreed to leave the criminal licensing system in exchange for Sofia taking care of firing Gordon, something she seemed very willing to.

However, Selina did not want to take risks. Bearing in mind, moreover, that the Penguin would not be at all happy about what had happened in the Narrows, where Barbara, after killing Cherry, proclaimed that they no longer worked for the Penguin, Selina, Barbara and Tabitha decided to kidnap Sofia Falcone and use her as pledge to negotiate. The kidnapping took place, but then they were surprised, because Sofia told them that the Penguin had tried to kill her. They discussed if that was true (Selina thought so), but Barbara called the Penguin anyway, offering her freedom in exchange for the Penguin leaving them alone and giving Selina everything she had about her past life. As is known, the Penguin reacted by sending Zsasz to blow up the club in which Barbara, Tabitha and Selina sold weapons. Which he did, using a portable rocket launcher, but without victims because the four women were able to escape in time.

Sofia, then, went to see Gordon to tell him through fake tears what had happened. Gordon, however, realized that she was just pretending and that she was only using that as an excuse to get the Gotham police to liquidate the Penguin. Just then, Bruce phoned Gordon.

'Don't worry, Bruce,' Gordon said. 'Selina managed to escape unharmed along with Tabitha, Barbara and Sofia Falcone ... How do I know? Because I have Sofia Falcone here with me, she has told me everything. Sofia ...,' Gordon covered the phone ,'... Selina Kyle was fine, right?'

'Perfectly. I have offered my house to them to stay there.'

'Sofia confirms me she's fine ... You're welcome, Bruce,' he hung up.

'Who was calling?,' Sofia asked.

'Bruce Wayne. He has seen the news on TV and he was very worried about Selina.'

'Is there any reason for that? It's rare, a millionaire being so interested in a common thief.'

'Bruce Wayne likes Selina very much. And among us ... I think she likes him too. Young love, you understand me, don't you?'

'Perfectly,' Sofia Falcone smiled ambiguously.

What happened in the meantime with Bruce? That the same day of the cannibal feast offered by Pyg, he went to a field trip with Alfred, as he usually did with his father. He had considered asking Selina to go with him, the two of them alone, but then he thought better of it. He was not yet prepared for that level of intimacy with her, since going on a trip with Selina implied that they would be alone for hours without anyone bothering them or seeing them together. Something that did not happen in Wayne Manor, because although there he could be alone with her, there were many other people who could ask many questions. And he was not prepared to talk to Alfred about his relationship with Selina either, and if the two of them had a field trip, he would have to answer many questions. So there they were, Alfred and Bruce, like every year after his father's death. Alfred told him the story of how he met Thomas Wayne, and how his relationship with him and Bruce had helped him leave behind a past he did not feel very proud of.

'Sometimes I think that taking care of you, helping you to be the man your father wanted, is my way of redeeming myself for many things I have done.'

'Have you done many bad things, Alfred?'

'Yes, I have. In our missions in the army we did things that were not worse than those ones that the criminals do here. I don't know what really happened the day I met your father, but I'm sure I did something terrible. However, his father saw something in me, something that perhaps I didn't even see myself. And a story was invented by him to free me from prison. Although he was possibly covering up a crime, with that violation of the law he achieved something much bigger.'

'What?'

'Saving my soul. He broke the law, but he saved my soul. It's paradoxical, sometimes for justice to be done it is necessary to break the laws that supposedly are at its service. But that's life. And even more in a city like Gotham. Even decent people like Jim Gordon, to get some justice for people who can't protect themselves, have to do things that wouldn't always withstand a thorough examination.'

Those words left Bruce very thoughtful. The same happened when Alfred told how he was before he met Thomas Wayne.

'In the army, I learned to keep people at a distance. If you made friends with someone and the next day he was killed, that devastated you. And if that happened again and again, it ended up being unbearable. So you choose to keep the distances. So, if your comrade-in-arms died, it did not affect you so much and you could move on. You survived.'

'But you would make friends with your comrades.'

'No, master Bruce. There was camaraderie, born of sharing suffering and death. But not real friendship. We weren't people who meet each other and have points in common. We were soldiers and nothing else, who were there to fulfill our mission. What we did beyond the battlefield didn't count. For us, there was nothing outside the army, except booze and whores. When you are on the battlefield, you don't think about anything else but staying alive until the next day and keeping your comrades alive. Not because of generosity, but because you will need them to stay alive. You don't ask yourself either if your mission is fair or not. You only fulfill it and that's it. On the one hand, that kind of life is attractive, it saves you the work of living, of thinking, of finding your way. But when you loose it, you discover that you are empty inside. That you are nobody. That you are alone. And that undermines you inside in a way that I don't even want to remember.'

'That's how I feel, Alfred,' Bruce whispered with painful sincerity. 'Now that my parents' killers are all dead, I feel empty inside. All these years I have lived to do justice to my parents, and I haven't thought about anything else. And now that I've accomplished that, I feel lost.'

Alfred was very thoughtful. Bruce waited for him to say something. And finally, Alfred spoke.

'There are other people who need someone to do them justice. Many crimes in Gotham go unpunished because the police are not interested in investigating them, or because they are bought by people like the Penguin.'

'Are you talking about something like what I did for a while? That didn't work, Alfred. No human being could achieve that.

'A human being, no. But what if he or she was someone other than human? Not a man but some kind of mythical figure. Something to frighten the criminals and to pour hope in the hearts of those who have lost it. Something to discourage corrupt police officers and encourage honest police officers like Gordon. Something to balance the balance.'

'A Dark Knight,' Bruce remembered.

'What?'

'That's what Ras al Ghul said! That I was destined to be a Dark Knight, a sort of protector of Gotham.'

'Now you're going to pay attention to what the man who prompted you to kill me said?'

'No, I'm not! I'm just saying, let's use that idea!'

He remained thoughtful for a while. His mind returned to the night of his parents' murder. He recalled that that day he had seen "The Mark of Zorro", starring a dissolute nobleman named Diego de la Vega, who nevertheless had a secret identity, "El Zorro", which protected the weak.

'I've got it, Alfred, I know what my way is, this is what I've been looking for all this time! I'll be a protector of Gotham! But as you said, I can't be just a vigilante who goes around beating the malefactors. I'll make a secret identity for me. Like El Zorro. An identity that can do all that you have said. It will have a "mark", like Zorro. And it will have all my family's fortune and the resources of Wayne Enterprises at his disposal,' Bruce was becoming more and more excited. 'To the world, I'll be only Bruce Wayne, the millionaire owner of Wayne Enterprises, who goes to parties and runs his company. But for a few trustworthy people like you or Lucius Fox, I'll be ... I'll be ...'

'You will be who, Master Bruce?'

'I don't know,' Bruce looked down. 'But what if you help me find it out?'

'So I will, Master B.,' Alfred smiled and put a hand on his shoulder.

**Hi! I expect you are enjoying this modest fanfic. A preview of what you can expect for the next chapters (if I have enough strength to finish this fanfic) that will differ from the TV show:**

**-NO BRATMAN**

**-Ras Al Ghul will NOT return (But Nyssa Al Ghul will appear).**

**-Selina will NOT be shot by Jeremiah. But she will have to bear a really painful time of separation from Bruce that will be caused by Jeremiah (so she will want to have revenge).**

**-And two possible endings. In one of them, Bruce will leave Gotham with Selina (and I am even considering marrying them!). In the other, he will leave Gotham alone. **

**What do you think? **


	8. Sofia and Selina

The following days were a veritable whirlwind for Selina. Despite the displeasure Sophia Falcone inspired in her (she knew how to recognize a hypocrite at first sight and she had realized from the beginning that Sofia was one of the worst hypocrites she had ever seen), she had no choice but allying with her against the Penguin. Even if that required her to do things like kidnap Martin, the Penguin's little orphan friend, to use him as a hostage against the latter. That went horribly wrong —they not only did not get anything but also the Penguin blew up the car in which the boy had just climbed (at least, that's what Selina saw, we all know what happened in reality) and then they had to flee so as not to be riddled with bullets by the Penguin's men. Another thing she had to do was be an accomplice of the torture of Penn, the Penguin's accountant. Selina could be very aggressive if necessary. But she detested cruelty, especially when exercised against people who were completely unable to defend themselves.

But that took an unexpected turn when she, Barbara, Tabitha and Sofia fell into a trap set by the Penguin in the Falcone mansion. To the surprise of the four of them, the Penguin had called Carmine Falcone himself to take Sophia out of Gotham, forcibly if necessary. While Sofia was escorted out of the mansion, the Penguin's men tied up the Sirens in the living room.

'I'll decide later what I'll do with YOU,' the Penguin threatened them. 'You not only betrayed me, but you ally with my enemy. YOU ...,' he pointed at Tabitha" ... you killed my mother BEFORE MY EYES. I'll kill you and I'll make sure you suffer. YOU ... ,'she pointed at Selina, 'I was merciful to you once again, I did not send Bruce Wayne everything I knew about you, I gave you one more chance, and you also have BETRAYED me by joining with my enem...'

A sound of shooting interrupted him. The Penguin came out, and came back in after a while.

'You're lucky. Someone has just shot Carmine Falcone and hurt Sofia. At the moment I'm busy. But don't think this ends here. TAKE THEM FROM THERE!'

Zsasz and others took Barbara, Tabitha and Selina from there. The latter had no illusions about her fate. But she did not care anymore. She just hoped that would end quickly.

However, it did not. Sofia testified that the Penguin had killed Martin. And asked about it, Victor Zsasz, who had always been very loyal to Carmine Falcone and believed, like many others, that the Penguin was behind the latter's murder, lied saying that indeed the Penguin had done that. The result was that the Penguin ended up in Arkham, the Sirens were released by the police after a violent shooting, and Sofia Falcone rewarded them with the Iceberg Lounge, which they renamed The Sirens Club. There, Selina met Sofia.

'I want to show you something, my girl.'

She took her from there to an office. She opened a safe and pulled out from it a sheaf of papers.

'What's that?'

'Your résumé, my dear." Sofia smiled, but it was a fake smile. 'Police records of your various arrests, obtained thanks to well-distributed bribes. Official dossiers of your stays in juvies. Declarations of people which place you working for murderers,' while saying this, she was passing papers to Selina. 'Everything together impresses quite enough. You know? It was _me_ who suggested to the Penguin the idea of using your love for Bruce Wayne to blackmail you.'

'I don't love Bruce Wayne!'

'Tch, tch, tch,' Sofia denied wagging her finger. 'Maybe you can deceive a guy with that, but not me, because I'm a woman and I know how to recognize a girl in love when I see her. And I know how useful love can be as a means to control people. I was the one who took care of collecting the information and interviewing the right people, whom I knew thanks to my father's old friends. It was me who spoke with Grace Blomdahl, the jealous friend of Bruce Wayne. I let the Penguin credit himself, but now that he's in Arkham, I can already say it calmly. It was ME all time.'

'Wh...what do you want from me?'

'Just secure your loyalty. If you betray me, all this will end up in Bruce Wayne's hands. I'm not as compassionate as the Penguin, my dear.'

Selina snorted. The Penguin, compassionate?

'I can see you don't believe me. Well, I'll give you a small example to make you see what I'm capable of. The Penguin can be brutal. But he really loved his father and his mother. I, on the other hand, I've just rid of my father.'

'WHAT?'

'Yes, dear. It was me.'

'But you were hurt!'

'Oh, no, no. It was not the shooter who killed my father who hurt me. It was a strategically placed second shooter, which wounded me in a non vital part. Then, with a little help from a friendly doctor, I pretended to be more seriously hurt than I was in order to make it easier for Gordon to turn on the Penguin. Because ... I have him wrapped around my little finger, dear.'

Selina began to feel her blood boiling. But she tried to stay calm.

'Yes, of course,' she said in a skeptical tone.

'You don't believe me? Well, there's more, dear. Who do you think brought Pyg to Gotham?'

'It was you?,' Selina looked at her speechlessly.

'Yes, it was me. I had to cause a scandal serious enough for the police to see that the Pax Penguina was not as advantageous as they thought it was. And by the way, make Gordon a hero to make sure he was named captain of the GCPD Central Precinct. As it has happened, indeed. It has demanded some sacrifice ...,' she touched her hand, which showed the scar of Pyg's stab, ' ... but it has paid off.'

'But Gordon has killed Pyg,' Selina recalled.

'New mistake, dear!,' she laughed once more. 'It was me, just after telling him everything! But it was necessary for Jim to take credit. Now I have him hold by the balls. Because, besides ... I did not tell you? If I'm here, it's thanks to him. If he confess everything, he won't be the only that will fall apart. The GCPD will fall apart too, since they have trusted him blindly. Something that Jim will not consent to. So we have reached an agreement. He will direct the police in his way and I will direct the world of crime in mine.'

She paused.

'And one more thing. The Penguin did not kill Martin. He faked his death to keep him safe from me. But now, even that will not help. Zsasz has him guarded day and night. If the Penguin talks too much, a phone call and that precious dumb child will see his little neck slashed.'

Selina sat on a chair, stunned. She had met many evil people. But Sofia was ... she had no words to describe her. The Penguin at least had something that redeemed him, his love for his father and mother and the unexpected affection he had shown for little Martin. But Sofia simply seemed to lack any kind of human feeling.

'I hope this makes you clear what I am capable of. And that when I threaten, I carry out.'

'I'll tell Bruce to forget about me. So you won't be able to attack me, "retorted Selina, defiantly.

'In that case, I'll go after him. I'll make sure this information falls into the hands of Wayne Enterprises' people. You know? There are many people there worried about what may happen when Bruce is of legal age. They fear he wants to imitate his father and do things differently. And now, with the Court of the Owls gone, they are much more vulnerable. But this ...,' she hit the sheaf of papers. 'Knowing that Bruce has fallen in love with a criminal could be interpreted as something that could endanger the company. And it could start a legal procedure that leaves him with nothing. Since he is under age, it will be easy. We can allege that Mr. Pennyworth does not comply with his duties as guardian, we give him another who does everything he's told, and we force him to sell all his shares. We can leave him in misery. We can take everything away from him, except his life. I know very well how much you love Bruce, my dear ... No matter how much you disguise it, the murderous looks you are directing me now leave no doubt about how important he is for you. If you love him so much, would you want to see him destroyed?'

'No,' Selina admitted.

'Great. I see we're getting along, pretty girl,' she smiled, and stroked Selina's cheek. 'In contrast, if you keep your mouth closed and do what I tell you, everyone will be happy. You run this club with Barbara and Tabitha, which is an opportunity to do something useful and not just survive. You keep seeing your millionaire friend. And meanwhile, I lead the world of crime in this city. Gordon has accepted the deal. Be smart, and accept it too.'

Selina sighed.

'Okey. You win.'

'Great!'

At that moment, an employee entered the office accompanying Bruce. Seeing Selina, Bruce smiled. Sofia got up to greet him.

'Mr. Wayne was very worried about you since the explosion in your club, Selina. Some while ago I phoned him and told him you were safe here and he insisted on seeing you,' Sofia said, showing a very empathetic tone.

'I was very worried,' Bruce confirmed, visibly worried. 'Since I haven't had news about you for days, I thought something bad had happened to you. You don't know how happy I am that you're okay.'

'Well, I'm fine, thanks,' Selina said, trying to sound nonchalant.

'You must know that the day of the explosion I was in the police precinct with Gordon. Then, I found out how important she is to you,' Sofia looked at Selina and smiled. 'So I've taken care of keeping her safe.

'Yes, yes, of course!,' Selina tried to smile. 'Safe, safe, that's it.'

Bruce raised his eyebrows slightly, but he said nothing. Instead, he extended his hand to Sofia.

'I'm sorry about your father, ma'am. My deepest condolences.'

Sofia shook his hand, and sobbed. Although it was a false sob. Selina prayed that Bruce would notice.

'I remember as if it was yesterday what happened to your parents, Bruce. I saw it on TV, I was very impressed. I thought "I wish I could do something for that poor child". I never thought ... I never thought that I would have to go through something similar. Seeing how your father is riddled with bullets ... and being able to do nothing ... nothing ...,' she collapsed in the chair, covered her face and burst into tears.

Selina felt like throwing up. Bruce looked uncomfortable.

'I'm sorry I bothered you, ma'am.'

'You don't bother me at all, Bruce. It's just ... I still can't believe it. I simply can't accept I will never see him again.

'Same thing happened to me. But, as Jim Gordon told me then, there is always light after darkness. And the darkest moment of the night is just before dawn. Then, I didn't really believe him. But now, I see that he was right.'

'Th ... thanks,' Sofia looked up and Selina could see there were no traces of tears on her cheeks. 'Selina is right, you're a good boy. Or better, a good man. Because you're not a child anymore. You're now a man, and a great man.'

Selina wanted to take her whip and give a good spanking to that hypocrite. She had never said such a thing. What was Sofia playing? And then, she thought, "She's only a few years older than Bruce, is she trying to seduce him, maybe?"

"No way! I won't allow you to steal Bruce from me, you two-faced bitch," she answered to herself.


	9. Selina's confession

Despite the warnings Alfred had given him before getting off the car which he had been driven with to the Sirens club, Bruce Wayne found no reason to complain about Sofia Falcone. The fact that they shared the trauma of seeing his and her father murdered before their eyes made them connect quickly. And the fact that they came from rich families made their life experience very similar. So they easily found conversation topics. On the other hand, Sofia did not stop praising Selina, another reason for Bruce to like her. True, Selina had wanted to leave, but Sofia had said no, that she should stay, that she did not bother them at all. However, Bruce could notice Selina was not comfortable. And then he remembered why he was there.

'Selina, I haven't told you that I'm going to be out of Gotham for a while. I need to relax a little before I come of age and start making decisions about my family's businesses.'

'To disappear for a time in your French castle, right?,' Selina replied, feigning indifference.

'It's in Switzerland,' Bruce corrected. 'And no, I won't. Because I wanted to invite you to come with Alfred and me.'

The invitation caught Selina completely by surprise, judging from her face. Curiously, it also did it with Sofia, who seemed for a moment ... upset? Why? Why would she be upset about he taking with him the girl he liked? What was happening here?

'It's a very generous invitation, Bruce,' said Selina, who at the time was showing the same nervousness as that day long ago when Bruce admitted subtly that he felt something for her.

'Then you will come?'

'Thanks, but no.'

'Ah ...,' Bruce looked very disappointed.

'I have to help Barbara and Tabitha to set up the new Sirens club. This is an opportunity for me, my life will be no more just surviving by stealing what I can or working in the service of criminals to earn some money, which is what I have done all my life. You understand, don't you, Bruce?,' Selina looked very tense.

Bruce nodded and smiled.

'Of course. I'm glad you do it. Tell Barbara and Tabitha that if you need people to perform here, you can phone here,' he pointed a phone number written on a piece of paper. 'Say that you are calling for me and they will get you famous artists. I can also recommend you to the people of Wayne Enterprises and thus you can get important customerd, do you think it's OK?'

'Sure, Bruce. Thank you very much,' Selina smiled sadly.

Bruce had the feeling that deep down she wanted to go with him. And he wanted with all his might her to do it. But on the other hand he realized that if he really loved Selina, if that was more than a fleeting teenage crush, he had to think about what was best for her. And that was an opportunity for Selina. It could go wrong, or not, but it was an opportunity. He had to put aside his feelings and seek Selina's good. In addition, it was not a definitive separation, only temporary. And they could communicate.

'This is my address in Switzerland, and this my phone number,' Bruce wrote it down on paper. 'Phone me and write me whenever you want. And tell me how you are doing here.'

'I will,' said the girl, who seemed more happy. 'And write me too, okay?'

'Okay,' Bruce nodded.

During the following weeks Bruce and Alfred discussed a lot the idea the first one had had. They realized that for this idea to become a reality, Bruce would have to secure the control of Wayne Enterprises, and they found that the young man did not even know much about how his family's enterprises really worked. In fact, he knew almost nothing about business management. It was decided that when they returned to Gotham, he should study these issues thoroughly. On the other hand, he did not know much either about how criminals really worked. Bruce decided that he should spend time in depressed areas of Gotham and perhaps of other cities, that were controlled by criminals and where the police did not enter. Nor was it very clear how they would get that new vigilante to become a mythical figure who instilled fear in criminals. So it would be necessary to study criminal psychology. And investigate other vigilantes that might have existed. There was a lot to do. And of course, it would be necessary to travel a lot. Spend some time with police and private detectives from different places. Study unsolved crimes. Study in detail how police corruption worked, not only in Gotham. Throughout the weeks, they discussed and discussed, and they developed a work plan. They would need people to help them. Alfred would call people who were friends with Thomas and Martha Wayne and would be happy to help Bruce to clean Wayne Enterprises (something that would be the first step to take, neither Bruce nor Alfred wanted another Court of the Owls directing from the shadows, or another Hugo Strange creating monsters and performing unnatural experiments on life and death). Bruce proposed asking for help from Harvey Dent, an assistant district attorney in Gotham, who was Gordon's friend, and who was famous for being the only one there who never had accepted bribes, and who, as Bruce knew from Selina, was a good man who always tried to give second chances to juvenile delinquents —and besides, because he was not well regarded for his integrity, he was given the cases nobody else wanted. On the other hand, he did not forget about Selina and wrote to her every day. And his letters became more and more personal.

And what was Selina doing in the meantime? Take care to start up the Sirens club. Something that required her to work very hard, as she had never done before. She even recorded a TV commercial with Tabitha and Barbara. She did not get any letters every day, but she got several at the same time in different days. She wrote to Bruce sometimes but when his letters became increasingly personal she stopped doing it. The reason is that Bruce praised her very much, saying that she was a very strong, generous and courageous girl, who had the makings of a heroine, and she did not feel she was any of that. She began to realize that Bruce had fallen in love with an imaginary person, something that made her feel very guilty. Especially because she did not have the courage to confess the truth. She even tried to leave the letters unopened, but she could not. The reason is that she was more and more in love with Bruce. Barbara and Tabitha, more familiar with these issues for having been in love themselves, made it very clear to her. And precisely because of how in love she was, she felt more guilty. She had to put an end to all this if she did not want it to destroy them both.

The opportunity came a few weeks later, when Bruce returned to Gotham and went to visit the Sirens club. Barbara, of course, warned Selina. She swallowed and went to Bruce. The huge grin that appeared on Bruce's face when he saw her did not help Selina feel better.

'Hi, Bruce.'

'Hi! I have just arrived and it occurred to me that I could come by to see you. Now, it's easy to find you, it's not like before. Alfred and I have been discussing projects for the future. Although he disagrees, I have decided that I can trust you and that I want to tell you everything. Because I think you can be very helpful.'

'Because you think I'm strong, brave and generous? That's what you say in your letters,' Selina asked, her voice almost inaudible.

'You are, indeed. I know you well, Selina.'

Selina took a deep breath.

'You don't know anything about me, Bruce.'

'Of course I do!'

'No, you don't. You are very wrong about me. I'm not what you say I am. You are all that, and you think that all people are like that. But not me.'

'I…I don't understand you.'

Selina swallowed.

'The night your parents were killed... I was there. On the fire escape. And I saw everything. I saw how that guy shot them and then fled. And I saw you kneeling on the body of your parents and staining your hands with their blood. And I did nothing. Nothing!,' Selina choked back a sob. I didn't scream, I didn't help, I didn't intervene.'

'Selina ... you were a girl and you were scared.'

'No!,' Selina cut him off, choking a new sob. 'You were the scared child, Bruce,' she hit him with the tip of her finger. 'I didn't do anything because I wasn't willing to risk my neck for anything or anyone. Because I didn't care. That's who I was ... and that's who I am. You are ... you are in love with an imaginary person.'

Bruce looked at the girl speechless. He was not quite sure what he should say now. But at that moment, a noise of altercation distracted Selina. There were several men who argued because of a beautiful redhead woman who looked at them with an expression of having a lot of fun.

'Ivy?,' she said.

She got up and went to the woman (who certainly did not look like Ivy except her long red hair), forgetting about Bruce. He saw that Selina was leaving with the redhead, so he decided to leave too.

As it is known, the woman was in fact Ivy. But she was now a "mutant-Ivy" after having ingested potions from a drug dealer. Now she had a strange and unsettling power, through which she could kill anyone by simply scratching him and besides she made poisonous ivies bloom inside him. She also did a demonstration with Selina, althoughs she quickly gave her an antidote. She also invited Selina to associate with her. Although Selina was not very sure that this would lead her to something good, she accepted.

At night, Barbara asked him how she had gone with Bruce. Selina responded evasively, Barbara insisted, and then Selina told her what had happened.

'You know, Babs?,' said Tabitha, who had heard the conversation too. 'I'm not sure that Selina suits us as a partner.'

'What are you saying?,' Selina asked palely.

'That a stupid partner is not what is best for us, dear.'

'What's that about?'

'That you had wrapped around your pinky the boy all Gotham girls would kill to get, and you've ruined everything with your ridiculous scruples,' Barbara replied dryly.

'But, but...'

'No "buts",' Tabitha cut her off. 'You had the chance that your life would become a fairy tale, with the prince rescuing the princess from the gutters instead of rescuing her from the dragon. And you've spoiled it.'

Selina tried to defend herself, saying that Bruce had fallen in love with an imaginary person. That she was neither strong nor brave nor generous nor a potential heroine as Bruce believed. But this time it was Barbara who interrupted her.

'So what? That only means that Bruce is a man. When a man is in love he sees what he wants to see in the girl he is in love with. She will look gorgeous to him even if she is very ugly. Even if she's silly, he'll think she's smart. Even if she is unfriendly, she will think she is nice. Even if...'

'OK, OK, I got it. And what do you suggest me do?'

'Go to see Bruce and tell him that what you said is nothing but bullshit,' Barbara advised.

'And by the way, you can tell him what you feel.'

'And what do I feel, according to you?'

'It's obvious, isn't it, dear? You're as madly in love with him as he is with you.,' Barbara laughed.

'It's not true, we're just good friends!'

'Oh, dear. You know as well as I do that it's, in fact, true. If you were just friends, you wouldn't have done such a stupid thing. Only people in love do it,' Tabitha replied calmly.


	10. Selina's redemption

Barbara and Tabitha's words impressed Selina vividly. However, she had no chance to put them into practice, because of what happened with Ivy. Because Ivy took Selina with her to rob (or so Selina believed) at the home of a Wayne Enterprises scientist named Roland Charles. At first, it seemed very funny. Because Ivy had her perfume scented by Roland Charles and his family, and that had the effect of putting them at her mercy. Selina took the necklace from the scientist's wife and went to see what else there was in the house that could be stolen. But meanwhile, Ivy killed the scientist using her new powers. Selina was horrified, and although Ivy later defended herself claiming that the scientist "tortured" the plants, she decided to abandon her.

Not only that. Later, after a brief chase, Gordon handcuffed her and took her to the GCPD Central Precinct because Roland Charles' relatives had given to the Police a description that matched her. However, at the precinct they found that Ivy had hypnotized the pólice officers with her perfume, and also Lucius Fox, who was participating in a mysterious project called "Project M" that interested Ivy (she had taken Lucius Fox with her for him to give her more details). They were almost attacked, but they managed to flee (Selina took the opportunity to give Gordon a slip).

Meanwhile, Bruce was dying in the Wayne mansion, victim of Ivy's poison. Ivy had gone there to learn more about Project M. She got Alfred to let her in by hypnotizing him with her perfume, and Bruce to give her more details by giving him a kiss (her lipstick was also hypnotic). After getting to know what she wanted to know, she scratched him, and the poison began to affect Bruce, making him hallucinate.

And what did he see? He saw someone tied hand and foot onto a bed, wearing only a kind of leather briefs. And he saw a woman next to the man, wearing a kind of bikini, also made of leather, studded with metal rivets, very high boots, and holding a whip. And as he approached, he discovered, astonished, that the man in the bed was him! And the woman with the whip was … Selina?

'Come on, honey,' said Bruce's lookalike. 'Do it, now!'

'You are a bad boy. And since you're a bad boy, I'm going to punish you with some whipping,' said seductively the Selina in the leather bikini.

That said, the Selina with the whip began to flog Bruce's double. But the surprising thing was that Bruce's double did not scream in pain. He, instead, screamed in pleasure. As if he was sexually aroused. Bruce tried to intervene, but he found that his feet were stuck on the ground and he could not speak or move. The Selina with the whip turned to him and said,

'You see? This is what I really am. I'll do anything to survive. Anything.'

The scene changed. Bruce found himself in an alley. He saw a woman dressed in clothes that left much of her skin exposed. For this detail and for her insinuating gestures, there was no doubt that she was a prostitute. Bruce approached her. The prostitute turned her face towards him. And she was Selina too!

'This is what I am,' said the prostitute-Selina. 'I'll do anything to survive. Anything.'

'You!,' said someone.

Bruce and the prostitute-Selina turned around. The newcomer was …Bruce?

'How much do you ask?,' he asked the prostitute Selina .

'It depends on what you want. A blowjob? A handjob? Butt-fucking? Complete fucking?,' the prostitute-Selina asked insinuatingly.

'Well ... a blowjob,' said the Bruce-client of the prostitute Selina .

And a horrified Bruce had to witness how the prostitute Selina made a blowjob to ... him? And again and again, Selina repeated "I'll do anything to survive." He wanted to do something but he had his feet stuck to the ground and once again he could not speak.

The scene changed.

He found himself in the middle of the Sirens club. And on the stage, it was, once again, Selina. She was doing what was indisputably a striptease. And among the audience that howled and shouted were the Penguin, wearing a top hat and smoking from a cigarette-holder, Edward Nygma, who was wearing an extravagant green suit with question marks stamped everywhere, and James Gordon, who had a mustache. And there was Bruce himself, uttering obscenities that made Bruce sick. But once again, he was unable to do anything. The Selina of the stage, when she was only with her underwear, pointed to him and said "this is what I really am, I'll do anything to survive".

Once again, the scene changed.

He was in the middle of the alley where his parents were killed. But he was not alone. Right on the fire escape from where Selina had witnessed everything, there was someone else. A mysterious masked figure, who wore what looked like a broad cloak.

'Who are you?'

'Why do you ask me if you already know the answer?,' asked the mysterious figure, with a strange voice that seemed to come from a speaker.

'Why am I here? Why am I in the alley where my parents were killed?'

'Because this is where I was born,' the figure retorted.

The figure jumped on Bruce. He covered himself with his arms, terrified.

'Look around you!,' a voice shouted.

Bruce uncovered his face. He was in a huge natural cave. And at a distance from him, it was once again that mysterious masked figure. Bruce could see that a kind of horns or pointed ears protruded from his mask, he could not have said exactly what they were. He wore a huge cloak that fell almost to the ground. His suit was completely black, and he wore on his chest something that looked like a bat with its wings spread out. However, he could not see his face.

'What is all this? What is this place? Who are you?'

'Why do you ask me things whose answers you already know?,' answered the mysterious figure.

And then the figure transformed into a huge flock of bats, which fell on him. Bruce screamed in terror. He had never liked bats. He began to swipe to get rid of them. And suddenly he found himself in the dining room of the Wayne mansion again. Gordon was leaning over him, pouring a liquid for him to drink. And he saw Alfred not far from him, rubbing his head.

'What... what happened?'

'You were hallucinating, Bruce,' Jim Gordon explained. 'Because of the poison from Ivy. Fortunately, we had the antidote,' he held up a vial.

'I'm ashamed, Master Bruce,' said Alfred, helping Bruce get up. 'I should have resisted. But that perfume overwhelmed my mind in a tremendous way.'

'I'm sorry I hit you in the head, buddy,' Lucius Fox said. 'But you didn't want to let us in, you said they were Ivy's orders.'

'No matter. Bruce is fine, that's what it matters.'

Before Gordon left, Bruce explained to him and Alfred what he had seen while he was under the influence of Ivy's poison. He was sure it was not just a hallucination, it meant something. Gordon nodded.

'It may have to do with you being worried about Selina. If what you want is for me to give you some advice about girls, I'm afraid I'm not the most appropriate person. I've ruined all the relationships with women I've had. But I think Lee can help you.'

'Master Bruce, don't you think you should definitely forget Miss Kyle? I think what she did the other day was breaking up with you. It may be better that way,' Alfred objected.

'No, Alfred. I won't do that. I'm going to fight for her,' Bruce replied firmly.

Although reluctantly, Alfred accompanied Bruce to the Narrows (he did not even want to hear about Bruce going alone to that dangerous neighborhood). Bruce explained to the doctor what had happened with Selina, and the content of the vision, hallucination, or whatever it was. Lee Thompkins just listened and took notes, she only asked for some clarification from time to time.

'You must know that Selina is going through a very complicated situation,' Dr. Thompkins told him.

'Yes, I guess it must not be easy for her to see how a friend of her becomes a homicidal maniac," Bruce said, thinking of Ivy.

'Yes. But there is more.'

'And what is?'

'That, she has to tell you when she's ready.'

'How? I don't think she wants to talk to me after what she told me the other day.'

'We'll see. At the moment I told her that you're going to give a speech at the Wayne Foundation Annual Gala. Maybe you'll find her out there. If you find her, talk to her.'

'What do I tell him?'

'You can tell him what you saw in that hallucination or vision or whatever it was.'

'Do you think it means something?'

'Of course I do. It perfectly describes why Selina acts as she acts. Since her mother abandoned her in an orphanage, she has only had one goal in life, to survive. That is why she feigns indifference for what happens around her. That's why she has associated with criminals like Fish Mooney or The Penguin. But she can't do that anymore. She wants to live. But she doesn't know how. And to live is to love. But for someone who during her whole life has received little true love or no love at all, unlike you, that is terribly difficult. Are you seeing where I want to go?'

'Yes,' answered Bruce after thinking about it for a long time. 'I think what you want to say is that if I want Selina to love me, I must love her first, and to love her requires loving her as she is, with her past, with all the things she has done, with the life she has had.'

'I wouldn't have expressed it better. I would add this, for her to overcome what happened on the day of your parents' murder, she must forgive herself for not having done anything. That can be even more difficult than forgiving others. She may have to do something that she considers a redemption for all that.'

They were talking for a while longer. Lee told her how she had become a sort of queen of the Narrows and how she was looking for ways to settle disputes peacefully. Perhaps for that reason she had suffered an assassination attempt with a bomb transported by a toy airplane, the work of one "The Toymaker", but whose instigator had not been identified (it was Edward Nygma but she did not know that). She told him about her dispute with someone called Sampson for the control of the Narrows. She told him about Edward Nygma, who, according to her, had changed a lot, so much so that he was no longer "The Riddler". And she told him about Butch Gilzean/Solomon Grundy, who apparently was beginning to remember who he was. Finally, the conversation ended because Lee had to meet with Sofia Falcone for business matters.

The day of the gala arrived. Bruce was accompanied by Alfred. He was to give a speech about the activities of Thomas and Martha Wayne Foundation that he did not have much interest in (he just had to read what was written on some papers). While he paused in the boring reading, he looked at the huge windows of the room and for a moment he could see a curly hair peeping over the sill and then disappearing again. There was no question about who was there. Bruce took a deep breath.

'I'm going to tell a story. A true story of a boy who had suffered a tragic loss and an extraordinary girl from the streets.'

And Bruce told his own story and Selina's. True, he spoke in the third person and referred to the boy and the girl with invented names ("Bat" and "Cat"). And he omitted some details. But he took care not to omit those aspects more favorable for Selina. Everyone applauded and Bruce returned to his place with Alfred. He looked at the window and again he could make out the top of Selina's head poking slightly above the sill. She had heard everything. But before Bruce could say anything, it was Ivy Pepper who held the microphone.

'Nice speech, billionaire boy. But now, it's my turn.'

Several armed thugs entered the room, closing and blocking the doors with chains and bolts. Panic spread through the room. Bruce knew what he had to do.

'Ivy!,' he rose. 'It's me who you want. Let these people go!'

'Very noble, billionaire boy. But no. True, I want you more than anyone else here, but if you are the only one being turned by me into a floral arrangement, my message will not be heard at all. Look!'

One of the thugs (they seemed to be spellbound by Ivy) deposited a pot with a strange plant in it on one of the tables. Ivy approached, and after complaining about how much humans ill-treat the plants, she blew on the pot. From the plant they came a kind of spores that got into the nose and mouth of one of the present. And then, something horrible happened —flowers started sprouting from his ears, nose and mouth; his skin began to acquire an earthy tone, and soon he fell dead to the ground, turned into a kind of human bouquet.

Bruce stared at the scene, pale with horror. Following Ivy's orders, two thugs grabbed him and put him in the middle of them all. Alfred tried to oppose but he was knocked unconscious.

'Yesterday I took pity on you and gave Gordon and Fox the antidote for the poison I had put in your veins. But today I won't be so compassionate. I suggest you breathe hard and it will be faster.'

Ivy took a flower out of the flowerpot and made as if to blow, while the thugs violently held Bruce.

Bruce closed his eyes.

And just at that moment, a whip crack resounded. Bruce opened his eyes. He watched Selina crushing that strange flower with her foot. None of the thugs reacted; they all stared at Ivy. Selina took advantage of it, picked up the pot and went to one of the windows.

'Tell your thugs to release Bruce or I'll throw it into the street,' Selina warned, holding the pot outside the windows.

Ivy snorted with anger.

'OK.'

The thugs released Bruce. Bruce ran to the unconscious Alfred, who just then began to wake up. But Selina instead threw the pot to the street. Everyone heard it break.

'What have you done?'

'Just preventing you from turning these people into flower arrangements like you did with those other people, Ivy,' Selina replied quietly, holding her whip with her right hand.

'Are you on their side, then? The side of those who have hurt us?'

'But are you hearing yourself? What's happening to you, Ivy? You weren't like this.'

'Neither you were. But this will be the last time you cross my path. And this time, there will be no antidote!'

Ivy took a step toward Selina. But she smiled once more and took from her pocket a small vial of greenish liquid.

'Gordon came to see me this morning. Besides telling me what you did to Bruce yesterday, he told me some interesting things about this liquid. For example, that it's what you need to turn Gotham into a rainforest like you said in that video that came out on TV this morning. I figured you'd be around here doing something like this so I decided to take it with me. What if I drop it on the floor?,' she held up the bottle with two fingers.

'You win. I'll let you live. But give me that liquid.'

'You know? I don't think so. Especially considering that you have several armed guys here.'

Selina dropped the vial and crushed it with her foot.

'Kill her!,' Ivy shouted. 'Kill them all!'

Ivy left the room while the thugs started firing. But maybe because they were under Ivy's spell they were too slow. So Selina had time to hurl herself on the ground and knock one down with her whip. She took his gun and threw it to Bruce, who in turn knocked a table to the ground to take cover from the shoots and gave the gun to Alfred, who used it to respond to the fire from the thugs. Selina ran to the door on all fours, with her prodigious catlike agility, took a pen that Bruce gave her and used it to open the padlock with which the thugs had blocked the door. At that moment Gordon and several police officers entered and started to respond to the fire. Bruce, meanwhile, to Selina's desperation, because she wanted him out, ran from table to table, helping people out.

'You're going to have yourself ki...!',' started to say Selina, exasperated.

And just at that moment, a bullet hit her! Selina put her hands to her belly and fell to the ground. The last thing she saw before the darkness enveloped her was Bruce's anguished face shouting, "Hold on, Selina! Stay with me, stay with me!"


	11. A Date on a Roof

When she regained her consciousness, Selina found herself lying in a hospital bed. She had a dropper attached to her left arm. She was wearing hospital clothes. She looked around and saw she was not alone. Sitting on a chair beside her bed, it was Jim Gordon, dressed in that brown trench coat that had become inseparable from his public image.

'I can see you have woken up. How are you, Selina?,' Selina noticed a tone of concern in the policeman's voice that she had never heard in him.

'As if I had been shot,' answered Selina, who felt as if her guts were turned into jelly. The stitches were tight, and there was a burning sensation where the bullet had hurt her.

'You've been very lucky. If the bullet had gone a bit more up and to your right, it would have pierced your liver, and that would have killed you. It seems that in your case it's true that cats have nine lives. Bruce kept repeating it.'

'Where is Bruce?,' Selina asked, anguished not to see him.

'Down in the hospital cafeteria, eating something. But I can warn him right now, if you wish.'

'Selina!, cried Bruce, entering the room. 'You are awake!'

There was such an expression of joy on the young man's face that Selina felt uncomfortable. Gordon stood up and said,

'I'll leave you alone, you'll have many things to say to each other.'

Bruce sat in a chair to the right of Selina and stared at her for a long time, saying nothing.

'What?,' Selina snorted. 'Say something!'

And then, Bruce reacted in an unexpected way. He leaned toward her, and kissed her on the lips.

Selina's eyes widened in surprise. For a moment, she thought of pushing him away. But then she thought "what the hell", she put her hands behind Bruce's neck and responded enthusiastically to the kiss. It was not the first time they had kissed, but that kiss was different. Before, the kisses had been all the most very inocent little pecks. But this time, it was not like that. There was in it passion, desire. There was in it expression of many things not said until then. For example, how much they needed each other. Finally, the young boy and girl separated when they had no air. In Bruce's face there was what was unequivocally a smile of triumph. Selina felt that the thick walls she had placed around her heart to make sure she never got attached to anyone had been razed. She felt vulnerable, as she had never been. Maybe it had been a bad idea, to let herself go. But on the other hand, she could not deny the obvious —that she had liked it. But then, she remembered something.

'The night your parents were murdered...I should have done something,' she said remorsefully.

'Selina...you've done more than enough. Without you, I would be now a human bouquet of flowers, like that poor guy. And then, you were able to pick that lock despite of the shooting around us, and you made possible for the people there to run away. You saved a lot of people! You were incredible!'

'Well...maybe,' answered Selina, adopting the pose of "I don't care" and "It doesn't matter" so characteristical in her.

'If there is something who has to apologize, this is me,' said Bruce, sadly. 'I stayed there to help people to get out and you stayed with me. That's the reason you were hit. My savior complex'.

Selina rolled her eyes and shook her head in another gesture very "Selina-esque".

'Bruce...you're not responsible for everything it happens around you! I stayed there with you because I wanted. You didn't force me or manipulate me to do it. As if you could.'

'Yes...you have me wrapped around your pinky,' Bruce smiled.

'That's it. I see that we understand each other,' answered Selina, in a nonchalant tone.

She paused, then she went on.

'You know? That day, when your evil twin brother sent you a false letter supposedly written by me, to attract you to a trap, and we met, if you had said me then that you had acted like a douchebag when you didn't tell me the truth about my mother, if you had asked for forgiveness, if you had said that you missed me a lot and if you have asked me to come back, please, I had come back. Because that was what I desperately needed to hear from you. But instead, you scolded me for doing business with Sonny Gilzean and tried to patronize me and to justify yourself. That felt like a punch in my stomach.'

'You're right, Selina. It has taken a long time for me to realize it, but you're right,' said Bruce, feeling terribly guilty.

'Yes, I am. But now, it's past. It's OK?,' Selina playingfully prodded Bruce's nosetip with her forefinger.

'It's OK.'

Selina was a few days more in the hospital. She was never alone —Bruce, but also Barbara and Tabitha visited her frequently. She heard bad news —Lee Thompkins had been broken a hand, and she was now in the hospital too. Both, Selina and Bruce, visited her. Lee did not said who had done that to her but Selina was not surprised to hear it.

'Narrows Code. Don't see, don't hear, don't speak,' she explained.

Another problem that arose was what had happened with Roland Charles. Selina felt remorse for it. She had wanted to recover the stolen necklace from the fence to whom she had sold it, but she could not. However, Bruce and Tabitha easily solved it. They went to visit the fence, and when he refused to accept Bruce's money in exchange for the necklace, and instead he threatened to beat them up, Bruce and Tabitha knocked him and his cronies out. And when they left, they took the necklace. Bruce could not help but think that Selina's mentoring had radically changed the once cruel and ruthless Tabitha Galavan. Now, she showed a genuine affection for the girl, something no one would have believed her capable of when she was associated with his sinister brother and the sadistic Jerome. Selina felt so bad that she did not see herself capable to appear before Roland Charles's family, but Bruce offered to accompany her, and she accepted.

The following days, many things happened. Gordon and Bullock took care of mowing off Sofia Falcone (they had found out that she was responsible for the attack on Lee because Lee had refused to give her control of the Narrows). The Penguin escaped from Arkham, aided by Edward Nygma, who, with a little "help" from the Penguin, had become once again "The Riddler". After Edward Nygma withstood Sofia's tortures, he and the Penguin reconciled. After a violent shooting in a spa, Sofia ended up in a coma, with a bullet in her head shot by Lee Thompkins, who then treated a badly wounded Gordon. And Bullock, who had hitherto resented Gordon for the way he had become a police captain, reconciled with him. But he strictly forbade him to say anything to anyone about what happened with Sofia and Pyg. Having to live with that secret was enough punishment for what he had done.

However, let us leave all that (well known if you've seen the Gotham series) and instead let us focus on Selina and Bruce. Selina was received as a star at the Sirens club. In addition, the fact of having as a partner the "whip heroine" (as the journalist Valerie Vale, who now presented a news program, had called her) had given the club a lot of publicity, and many, to the girl's surprise, asked autographs to Selina (who signed them not with her name but drawing the face of a cat). Bruce, while, watched the scene from the door, smiling. He was not sure what the future would hold, but he was determined not to mess things with Selina again.

Some nights later, Selina was climbing to the roof where Bridgit's pigeon coop was (she had not stopped attending it). Bruce had asked her to speak alone there and she had agreed. But when she finished her climbing, she opened her eyes with a gesture of surprise.

'What the hell...?'

The reason for her surprise was this —Bruce has set on the roof a picnic table with two complete sets of picnic plates and cutlery. Not only that, he had put two candles between the plates. Selina could see a picnic hamper and a portable fridge too. And a pair of picnic chairs beside the table.

'Well...if I didn't know you better...I'd say this was a ... date!,' the girl said with an apparently amused expression.

'Maybe it is. It's OK for you?,' said Bruce, lighting the candles.

'Maybe,' answered Selina, sitting on the chair which Bruce chivalrously offered her.

Bruce took some food from the fridge and put it on the table.

'Then...let's eat.'

And so they did. It was delicious, Selina thought. None of them said a word while they were eating. But that was not necessary. When the food was finished, both young people were silent for a while.

'So?,' said Selina.

'I don't know,' said Bruce. 'But I think we must begin to be honest with each other. Really honest. We both have hurt each other a lot, and we must stop. Because we need each other too.'

Selina did not object. Because that was true, too true. She had tried to deny it until then, but she could not do it anymore.

'You can start by not patronizing me and not trying to save me from myself,' said Selina in a mock nonchalant tone. 'I am what I am. And you are what you are. Don't try to change me and I won't try to change you. You can still be an annoying, arrogant, self-righteous, boring billionaire who is obsessed with saving everyone. And I can still be Selina Kyle, the street thief who only thinks in her own safety but who will be here whenever you need her. And when I say "whenever" I say "whenever". It's OK?'

Bruce grinned from ear to ear (that made Selina's stomach flutter, but she managed to keep a carefree expression).

'Yes, it is.'

'Good,' Selina nodded nonchalantly. 'Have a good night, Bruce.'

She stood up and walked toward the fire escape. Suddenly, she stopped, she turned around, she walked towards Bruce, she leaned on his shoulders and she kissed him on his lips. Then, she quickly went down the fire escape. Bruce watched her go. He was smiling happily.

'Have a good night, Cat.'


	12. The Cat Woman is born!

Bruce and Selina were in the living room of Wayne Manor, on a sofa. Bruce was sitting, examining the accounting documents that had been passed to him from Wayne Enterprises, in the hope of finding something compromising. Until then, he had had little success and much boredom. Selina, on the other hand, had her head resting on Bruce's lap, and purred whenever he stroked her hair.

'Bruce,' said Selina.

'Yes?'

'Obviously, those two-faced jokers who rule your enterprises will have made sure that the documents they gave you have nothing compromising.'

'It's likely, but you never know. There may be something here, something they have overlooked.'

'Or maybe there's nothing, and you'll be reading those boring documents until the sea dries up. If you want to hunt down these people, you have to play dirty. You have to meddle where they don't want you to meddle. You have to find guilty secrets to blackmail them, to make them do whatever you want. Here, the law doesn't work for you. These people will have good lawyers who will twist it to their liking.'

'What are you insinuating?,' Bruce removed his hand from Selina's hair but the girl forced him to put it back there and continue stroking it.

'Find out where the cabinets and safes where they keep the most secret and compromising papers are. And look for someone you trust who is capable of opening them. Take note of the executives who are most unreliable. And have people you trust follow them. Follow them to those places where they wouldn't want to be seen. Observe with whom they meet. Maybe ... people they shouldn't be with,' Selina grinned mischievously.

'Many of the cabinets are armored. Their locks can't be opened as easy as all that. And opening a safe is not precisely a piece of cake.'

'Bruce, if you had been a thief since you were six, like me, you would know there is no lock, safe or cabinet impossible to open if you have the right tools. And I think that, being the richest man in Gotham, you'll have no problem getting them,' Selina reached up and stroked Bruce's cheek. 'If you tell me where the important cabinets and safes are, and you get me the tools that I will specify you, I promise to get you those secret documents.'

Bruce realized that Selina was not kidding. She would do what she had said, he was sure of that. However, a small detail remained.

'And what about the other thing you have said? About finding unreliable executives in compromising places and with people they shouldn't be with'

'It's all a matter of finding the right people. Don't ask me and I won't have to lie to you.'

Obviously, Selina, having worked for people like Fish Mooney, Butch Gilzean or The Penguin, had many contacts in the underworld. He decided that he preferred not to know anything about that facet of the girl's life.

'Okey. I'll talk to the people in the innovation department and I'm sure I'll be able to find something. You find those people meanwhile.'

And so it was done. Bruce called Lucius Fox, while Selina talked to Barbara Kean and Tabitha. The key to the plan of the young girl would be the wives and lovers of the executives of Wayne Enterprises who frequented The Sirens. Selina was very good at listening without attracting attention, and she knew how to easily earn the trust of people, even the worst criminals ("your face opens doors", Butch Gilzean had once told her), so she soon became a friend of many of them, and these, in turn, told her many secrets. The next step in her plan would be getting evidence that Bruce could use, and for that, she relied on both her friendships and her thieving skills to sneak into homes and snoop. Which she did, aided by the other Sirens, who, after the disappearance of Sofia Falcone, had seen their position weakened and sought to relate to influential people. And who was more influential than Bruce Wayne, the rich heir of the Wayne family?

They also decided that the best way for Selina to know what the Wayne Tower building was like, especially where the safes and cabinets were, was to get there into daylight under the arm of Bruce Wayne. After all, nobody would be surprised if Bruce brought his girlfriend with him. Bruce noticed that Selina, who was the one who got the idea, did not seem to show any discomfort at hearing the word "girlfriend". The pretext would be that Bruce wanted to know well the company he was going to direct some day. Selina proposed to go separately, she would pry while Bruce distracted the executives. That was something the girl could do very well. And given her great talent for lying, surely if someone found her and asked her questions, she would find good pretexts.

The first visit came out much better than expected. Because in the Wayne Tower there were several people who had seen Selina at the charity gala in which Ivy appeared and that ran to thank her for her bravery, and soon the word spread that Bruce had fallen in love with the "heroine of the whip". Although that was not entirely true, it did not stray far from the truth either, and neither Bruce nor Selina bothered to specify. While Bruce was talking to the executives, Selina snooped, and when someone saw her, thanks to her ability to pretend and lie, she soon managed to gain his or her trust. And she learned everything she wanted to know. Even the combinations of many safes, simply observing without being seen (something in which she stood out) when they were open. That was a basic thief trick. They made several more visits, which helped Selina to have a more complete knowledge of the layout of the building. This, together with the data that the building plans would provide, would make their plan more feasible.

When they had all the necessary information, they decided to execute the plan. Alfred, after some hesitation, agreed to collaborate. Lucius Fox, on the other hand, complied. To obtain the tools they would use, they went to a locksmith industry owned by Wayne Enterprises. Selina went to visit her along with Bruce and Lucius Fox, and said to Fox which of the items made there she would need. Lucius Fox, however, also made a contribution of his own. One afternoon, he came to Wayne Manor carrying in a briefcase, in addition to "the most complete set of thief tools you can conceive", as he called it (which included the tools chosen by Selina and others such as a small flashlight or a glass cutter), a special suit.

'Try it on you, miss,' said Lucius Fox, taking out of his briefcase a black "catsuit" with a kind of hood and a pair of high boots.

'I don't know ... this seems to be tight,' objected Selina.

'I assure you it's not, Miss Kyle. This suit fits the body like a rubber glove, but it's very flexible and fully breathable. And the boots are very light.'

Selina started to take off her leather jacket, when suddenly she realized something.

'Do you mind turning around? Although I expect Bruce will see one day more than you would see now,' Bruce felt an intense heat on his face upon hearing that,'I'm very protective of my privacy.'

Very chivalrously, Alfred, Bruce and Lucius turned around. Selina took off her jacket, T-shirt and pants and put on the suit and boots. As Fox had said, it fitted perfectly to her body, but it left her complete freedom of movement, as she could see for herself.

'Wow, Fox! It's as if I wasn't wearing anything ... Oops!,' she chuckled at Bruce's embarrased expression.

'Thank you. There are still a few things more. Put on the hood of the suit.'

Selina did it. Fox took out a kind of helmet and put it on the girl's head. It covered her face to her nose but left an opening for the eyes. It had a pair of protrusions on its sides reminiscent of ears (which hide a pair of earphones). Then, he took out a peculiarly shaped pair of goggles and put them on her.

'These goggles have two functions, miss. If you rotate the lenses like this, they are infrared goggles. If you turn them that way, they are normal goggles with a flashlight to see,' as he said this, he moved the lenses. Selina listened carefully, and then she tried the operation of the goggles.

'Mmm ... night vision goggles! I've never had anything like this, they are too expensive. Anything else, Lucius?'

'Yes. This utility belt,' Lucius took a belt out of his briefcase, and put it on her. Then he put the thief toolkit in it and hung it Selina's whip on a special hook that the belt had on its right side. Afterwards, he took out a pair of gloves finished in a kind of claws and put them on the girl's hands.

'Claws?'

'Not any claws. Try them there,' he pointed a nearby showcase.

Selina did it. To everyone's surprise, and especially of her, the claws easily opened a circular hole in the glass.

'Incredible ...,' said the girl while holding in her hand the circular piece of glass she had just cut off. Then, she ran across the room on two and four legs, jumping, making somersaults, cartwheels and various pirouettes. At that moment she reminded more than ever a cat, with her whip moving as if it were a tail. She approached Fox and Bruce. Even if the helmet covered half of her face, it left her mouth exposed, and it could be seen that she was grinning.

'This costume is amazing, Fox. Thank you, you are a genius.'

'You're welcome, miss. Although the merit isn't totally mine. The main part of the merit belongs to Bruce, he's the one who designed it.'

'Seriously?'

'Well ... I just gave some ideas, it was Lucius who did it,' answered Bruce nervously.

Selina smiled mischievously, and stroked Bruce's face in a very catlike gesture.

'You really know how to please a girl,' she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips.

Alfred and Fox looked away. Since the two young men did not separate (because Selina's kisses produced in Bruce more or less the same effect as Ivy's perfume), Alfred had to clear his throat.

'Excuse me,' Selina pulled away from Bruce but still hugging his neck. 'You know? It will seem strange to you, but with this suit I feel ... different. As if I were a mix of cat and human.'

'A kind of ... cat-girl?,' Bruce asked.

'Well ... yes, something like that,' answered Selina, adopting again her characteristic pose of nonchalance, and nodding her head. 'Although, since I'm already of legal age, I think I prefer ... cat-woman. It sounds good.'

'Cat-woman, then,'Bruce agreed. 'Do you think it's good if, while we talk to you on the radio, we always call you that?'

'All right,' Selina agreed, taking off her helmet and glasses. 'Wayne Tower, get ready! Today, The Cat Woman is born!'


	13. Catwoman and Two-Face

Selina and Bruce's plan went perfectly. True, at some point they were caught by one of the night watchmen, but Selina, using her great ability to lie, came up with a magnificent alibi —Bruce was supposedly a bored millionaire, nothing satisfied him anymore, and he wanted more exciting things. So he had decided to sneak into the Wayne tower at night and have good snogging sessions (and something else if it came to that) would be something very fun. That's why they had covered the security cameras, both the ones in the room they were in now and the ones in which they had been before, to have more privacy. She added that the reason she had a a whip and a tight suit it was because Bruce was very fond of BDSM.

'But Bruce is very generous. If you and your colleagues don't open your mouths, he will reward you,' Selina whispered. 'If you see that we cover another camera, it's because we are there, having fun. We promise to uncover them when we finish.'

'All right, Mr. Wayne, miss,' the watchman said.

And it worked, indeed. The fact that the watchmen already knew Selina from the visits she had made to the Wayne Tower contributed to that. So Bruce and Selina forced all the safes and armored cabinets they could find, almost under the watchmen's noses, and took photocopies of many documents. Above all, of some that looked like accounting documents. The next day, Bruce delivered that documentation to the attorney Harvey Dent, who now worked for the US Department of Justice, and who also requested the accounting documents that had been given to Bruce.

'When in a company you find two accounts corresponding to the same dates but that are not equal, as in this case, that means that one of them is false. And when someone falsifies an accounting, he probably wants to hide something. I can start here. Give me a few days and I think I can get search warrants that allow us to take everything we need.'

'Thanks, Mr. Dent.'

Just at that moment, Selina came in through the window. When she saw Dent, she took a few steps back.

'I see you remember me, Selina.'

'Harvey "Two Faces" Dent,' said the girl.

'"Two faces?",' Bruce asked.

'It's a nickname someone gave me because they were struck by the contrast between the kindness that I always showed with juvenile delinquents like Selina and how pissed off I become when I saw how the police officers treated them, and still treat them. As if each of them was a potential Ted Bundy or Charles Manson. The sad reality is that they are almost always victims. Victims of an unfortunate childhood, victims of the system, victims of a society that doesn't know how to treat them.'

Selina sighed.

'I've heard that tosh many times before now. And yes, I remember you well. I was handcuffed in a police station and you were on the other side of the table.'

'And do you remember what I told you then?'

'No,' but Bruce realized that Selina was not being sincere. 'As a general rule, I did not pay much attention to what the cops or lawyers told me.'

'I told you that hidden under that appearance of street thief there was a small heroine waiting to come to light. I told you that you deceived yourself when you said that you didn't care about anything and anybody. I told you that one day you would meet a boy who would love you with all his heart,' Dent looked askance at Bruce. 'And I described how that boy would be. Your "charming prince". Then, you didn't believe me, but I told you that I could give you a sign from heaven that this was the case.'

Selina sighed again.

'OK, OK. Yes, I remember it. And I remember you took out a coin and asked me to choose heads or tails. I chose heads. If I won, it would be a sign from heaven that what you had told me would happen and you wouldn't press charges. If I lost, it would be a sign that heaven was against me and you would press charges.'

'It's true, Selina. This coin,' he took a coin out of his pocket. 'I threw it into the air and heads won.'

'Sure. The problem was this ...,' Selina, with an agile movement grabbed the coin, '... that the coin had two heads, 'she turned the coin and Bruce could see that it was indeed like that. 'So you didn't fool me even though I made you believe so. Others had already told me about that coin trick. I simply told you what you wanted to hear because I didn't want to go to the juvie. I knew that if I told you that, you would soften. After you decided not to press charges against me, I ... I laughed at you and your naivete behind your backs,' Selina looked down, embarrassed.

Strangely, Dent did not seem angry.

'I have a different version of what happened. I know you're very good at hiding your feelings, you've always been. But on that occasion you were not. That day you lowered your defenses for a moment. I could see that you yearned with all your might for that to come true. Especially the part concerning the charming prince. That's why I decided not to press charges anyway, even though I knew you were fooling me. Because in there,' he pointed Selina's heart, 'there was a great person, a potential heroine waiting to manifest itself, especially if she ever knew the right person, that was able to bring to light all that good I knew you had inside. And what happened these days has shown me I was right.'

Selina shook her head. Obviously, she would never admit that Dent was right. But Bruce knew very well that he was. The fact that she did not deny it was in itself very significant.

'It's been a pleasure to see you again, Selina,' Dent concluded, standing up.

Bruce accompanied him to the door. Before leaving, Dent said.

'I know very well why you're doing this, Bruce. You want justice done to your parents. It's not enough for you that the culprits are all dead. I know you tried to investigate on your own and you didn't get much. You want everyone to know what really happened. And you hope that with this we can start doing a thorough investigation.'

'I'm wrong?'

-No, you aren't. Bruce. I appreciated your parents very much, I talked to them often. I always had the frustration of not being able to prosecute anyone for their murders. But with this, it will be possible for everyone at least to know the truth. And it will be possible too that many who knew something and did nothing to prevent that crime don't got their own ways.

A few days later, Selina was lying on the railing of a rooftop, contemplating Gotham, when she sensed that Bruce was there. Somehow, she always noticed his closeness. A wide smile played on her face. But when turning around she tried to adopt her characteristic pose of indifference. Of course, it was Bruce. Selina tried not to notice the slight heat that she felt more and more when Bruce was nearby.

'What's wrong?,' she asked.

'I wanted to bring you news. Dent has organized several searches at the headquarters of Wayne Enterprises and told me that with what he has he can prove that during all these years executives of Wayne Enterprises had been embezzling funds.'

'English, please.'

'It means that the executives of Wayne Enterprises have used part of the company's money for their own purposes.'

'I see. That is, they stole it. That they are as thieves as I am.'

'More or less. Dent believes that they used it to finance the secret activities of the Court of the Owls and possibly to silence those who knew what was happening. It's a very important step. On the other hand, with the information about the private lives of the executives that you have obtained for us, it will be easier to press them to say everything they know.'

'You won't have any problem, will you? After all, you are the main shareholder of Wayne Enterprises,' Selina showed an expression of concern.

'I won't. For starters, since I am still a minor, I didn't have access to the funds of the company. But in addition, Dent has a complete affidavit of mine about everything that I did these years to investigate the death of my parents, about how the Court of the Owls pressured me to stop investigating, about how they kidnapped me, about how they wanted to use me to destroy Gotham with the Jervis Tetch virus. If the executives' counselors go after me and claim that I knew everything, Dent will use that statement to show that even if I knew everything, I wasn't in a position to do anything.'

'Then your plans are going well, right?'

'Yes, they are. Also, at the next shareholders meeting I will be of legal age. I will be responsible for appointing a new board of directors. It will be formed by people who knew and loved my father, who wish to continue their legacy and clean up my businesses of corruption. People who really want the name of Wayne to mean again hope for Gotham.'

'I see,' Selina replied, feigning lack of interest.

'None of this would have been possible without you, Selina.'

'Well ... it's been fun,' the girl replied in a nonchalant tone. 'And it always feels good, to see how those self-righteous billionaires, who would surely call me "thief" and "street trash", really are.'

'Do you consider me a self-righteous billionaire?,' Bruce asked, sitting next to Selina.

'You're a billionaire and you're self-righteous, so the answer is, yes I do,' Selina stroked his cheek. 'But you're my self-righteous billionaire,' she ran her hands behind his neck and brought her face close to Bruce's.

Normally, Bruce would have responded "and you are my thief and my street trash". But he already knew Selina well enough to know that she did not like that kind of phrases. So he just put his arms behind her and kissed her on her lips.

While the two young people were intensely snogging, like the teenagers in love they were (but they caressed only on their clothes, and without touching in certain places), Gordon and Bullock had to deal with a massive escape of Arkham inmates, among those Jerome Valeska, Jervis Tetch and Jonathan "Scarecrow" Crane. And Barbara received a strange visit.

'Call me Theresa Walker,' said the visitor. 'We have a lot to talk.'

'And about what, if I can know?'

'About Ras'al Ghul.'

'I don't know what you're talking about,' Barbara answered nervously.

'I think, in fact, you do.'

'It's okay. Yes, I met him, but he died.'

'Well. As you know, Ras'al Ghul was the head of the League of Shadows. But he has died, as you said. My friends in the League of Shadows have told me everything, and above all, they have told me how he died. After his death, they need a new leader. From what my friends have told me, Ras'al Ghul had pointed you to that task. In fact, they also say that he transferred to you the power of the Demon Head. They want to recognize you as their new leader. But I have convinced them to wait, because I must first check if you are worthy.'

'Head of the League of Shadows? Would that mean ... have an army at my command?'

'An army of brave warriors and trained assassins.'

'Mmm ... with that at my disposal, I could become Queen of Gotham.'

'Enough. That shows that you're not worthy.'

'What?'

Then Theresa Walker did something surprising. She pounced on Barbara and kissed her on the lips while holding her right hand tightly. Barbara's hand lit up like an electric bulb, and light entered Theresa Walker's arm. Barbara collapsed on the floor and began to breathe rapidly.

'Now the Demon's Head is mine. I am the legitimate Head of the League of Shadows. My father's plan is closer to becoming reality. Goodbye, Barbara Kean.'


	14. Ras al Ghul on Fire

While Gordon tried to thwart a diabolical plan by Jervis Tetch (massively hypnotizing citizens of Gotham through radio waves to made them jump from rooftops), Jerome Valeska was looking for an uncle of his, owner of a bar. But it did not go as expected, because the uncle managed to immobilize him with the help of the old strongman of the circus in which Valeska had worked. He was about to torture him by pouring boiling soup into his face when the bar door opened, and Theresa Walker entered through it, accompanied by two men dressed in black, who had their heads covered and were armed with katanas.

'Who the fuck are you?,' asked Jerome's uncle.

Theresa Walker snapped her fingers. The men of the katanas unsheathed them and with quick movements they decapitated Jerome's uncle and the ex circus strongman. Jerome blinked and started laughing.

'Huuuh. They've lost their heads!,' he pointed at his uncle and the strongman. 'Ha, ha, ha, they've lost their heads! You get it? They've lost their heads, ha, ha, ha!'

Theresa Walker raised her right hand and touched Jerome with it. Strangely, Jerome calmed down.

'I know who you are,' she said in a very soft, almost hypnotic voice. 'I know who you are looking for.'

'Maybe. But we have a problem, my uncle was the only person who knew how to find him. And now, he has gone off his _head_,' Jerome laughed maniacally when he said "head".

'Oh, no. I know how to find him too. I can take you to him.'

'Can you? Why should I believe you? Because I have no fucking idea who you are, beauty.'

'My name doesn't matter. It matters why I am here. I had a vision. A vision of an agent of chaos that lives in two bodies. Yours and ... ,' she whispered something in Jerome's ear, and Jerome raised his eyebrows in amazement.

'How the fuck do you know that?'

'That doesn't matter either. I'm here to create that agent of chaos. To make the second body in which this agent of chaos lives free that part of his soul. Together, he and you, you will be that agent of chaos. And you will carry out my mission.'

'Hey, hey, hey,' Jerome made the "time-out" sign with his hands. 'That part about me being an agent of chaos and you taking me to Jeremiah sounds really cool for me. But everything else seems to me a lot of bullshit.'

'Follow me. Take me to your friends in the Legion of Horribles. I can make your darkest dreams come true. With your powers and my influence, my money and my murderers we can achieve it. Together,' she caressed Jerome's cheek and smiled devilishly.

'You have it on you, baby. I like you,' Jerome smiled too.

'I know. Let's get out of here before the police arrives and frustrates our plans. See you tomorrow.'

Meanwhile, Bruce had driven Selina to the Sirens club. There, they had a surprise —Barbara was unconscious in the backstage of the club, where she had met Theresa Walker. After reviving her, she told them what had happened. Bruce and Selina paled.

'Did you know that this Ras al Ghul had children? Because obviously that one Theresa Walker is his daughter,' said Selina.

'No idea.'

'Barbara, what else have you not told us?,' Selina asked, very nervous.

And Barbara told them that she had been having visions of Ras al Ghul. That, among those visions, there was one in which Ras revived her with the Lazarus Pit. She confessed that Ras al Ghul had been financing her failed attempt to establish a gun sale business. She explained she had visited him in prison and he had given him the power of the "Demon's head" which seemingly Theresa Walker had took out from her.

'Tell me, Babs,' Tabitha interjected, visibly irritated. 'Can we know to what you were waiting for to tell us all this? Because it's obvious that if this Theresa Walker is Ras al Ghul's daughter and she knows that Selina was the one who killed him, Selina is in grave danger.'

'And Bruce is too,' Selina observed. 'Ras al Ghul was stabbed by both of us.'

'And Gotham is too,' Bruce added. 'Ras al Ghul plan included destroying Gotham. He already tried it with Jervis Tetch's virus, and he almost succeeded.'

Everyone remained in silence.

'Well, what can we do?,' Selina asked.

'We can begin by destroying Ras al Ghul's mummy. As strange as it sounds, these people have the power to revive the dead, and Barbara is the proof. But I believe that without his corpse, they can't use the power of Lazarus pit,' Bruce proposed.

'Yeah, but where's that mummy?,' Tabitha asked.

'I think I know it. I saw Ras al Ghul's mummy in one of my visions. Maybe it will be difficult to enter there, but if we succeed, we can burn the body and disperse its ashes,' said Barbara.

'I sign up to that,' Selina nodded. 'Although we have a problem, it seems that this broad has an army of assassins under her orders, and we are only four.'

They stayed pensive for a while. Finally, Bruce had an idea.

'I'm supposed to be Ras al Ghul's heir. He appointed me. These people have their brains completely washed out. If I shout out loud that I'm his heir and that they must obey me, that will confuse them. They won't know how to react. And that can give us a few seconds.'

'A few seconds enough for us to riddle them with bullets,' Barbara laughed.

'And I think I should wear clothes that make me look a bit more like Ras al Ghul. For example, a black cloak or cape.'

'You're really fond of wearing black. Do you wear black underpants too?,' Selina asked cheekily.

Bruce became very red and Barbara and Tabitha laughed (By the way, the answer to Selina's question was yes. He used black boxer shorts).

'Take it easy, kitty. Something tells me that he'll soon let you see it for yourself,' Barbara patted Selina's shoulders and Bruce felt an intense heat on his face.

'What if we focus?,' Selina asked. 'Bruce was saying that he has to dress in such a way that he looks like the leader of a sect sort of oriental, wasn't he?'

'Yes,' Bruce nodded.

Do you still have that great suit that Lucius made for me?'

'Yep. And the thief tools.'

'Well, bring them to me. I think I'll need them.'

They decided to act inmediately if they could. Barbara and Tabitha would go to the place that Barbara indicated, armed to the teeth. Bruce would take Selina to Wayne Manor so that she could put on the Catwoman suit and pick up the thief's tools, after that, they would meet Barbara and Tabitha. Bruce would also take an old black cloak and would put on the suit Lucius Fox had designed, along with the cowl. And they did it so. I should point out that Selina did not ask Bruce to turn around while she was changing her clothes. Bruce felt divided between his hormones, which impelled him to look, and his chivalry, inculcated by Alfred, which impelled him to turn around. The end result was that he was stunned looking at her.

'What's wrong, you've never seen a girl in her underwear?,' Selina asked playfully as she dressed.

'I ... this ... I mean ...,' Bruce stammered.

'Relax, Bruce,' Selina stroked his face in a provocative gesture, once she finished putting on the Catwoman suit, although she did not put on her helmet yet. 'A day will come when you don't feel uncomfortable at all seeing me with so little clothes or without clothes at all. Now, we have work to do.'

Soon after, they were in the place that Barbara had indicated them through the cellphone. Alfred had gone with them, and Bruce accepted. The faithful ex-soldier would always be useful. Bruce, because of the cowl, the cape, and his black clothes, reminded a bit of a bat. Selina, on the other hand, adjusted her headphones and microphone and put on her helmet. The headphones were just below the ear-like protuberances. She decided that the best way to enter would be to open a circular hole in the glass of a skylight at the back of the building using the "claws" of the suit, enter through the hole and slide from there to the front door to open them a way. So they went there.

Bruce placed his hands for Selina to hoist herself up to the glass. Selina stood on tiptoe until she reached the glass with her hands. Suddenly, she turned and kissed Bruce on the lips. He was speechless, but quickly remembered where they were and hoisted Selina again. She quickly cut a hole in the glass using her "claws" and slipped inside the building.

'There are only a couple of guards here. I can dispatch them without problems,' Selina said through the radio shortly after.

Bruce chose not to think about what that "dispatch" meant. He did not like having to kill anyone, even though sometimes there was no alternative. Fortunately, he did not have much time to ponder it, because Selina soon opened the front door for them. Barbara and Tabitha picked up cans of gasoline. They entered and followed Barbara, who seemed to know where to go, perhaps because of her visions. Strangely, there was no one there. They soon arrived at a kind of crypt, in the middle of which there was a large sarcophagus. In it, Ras al Ghul's mummy rested.

'Let's burn it,' said Bruce.

Barbara and Tabitha emptied the gas cans into the sarcophagus. Then, they formed a small stream of gasoline that reached the sarcophagus. Alfred, then, took out a lighter.

'Can I? This guy was responsible of brainwashing Bruce to make him impale me.'

'No problem, Al,' laughed Barbara.

Alfred lit the lighter and brought it to the end of the stream. Gasoline ignited and soon the sarcophagus was engulfed in flames.

'NOOOOOO!,' said someone behind him.

They turned around.

'It's her!,' Barbara shouted, recognizing Theresa Walker. Along with her, there were a handful of warriors of the League of Shadows, identifiable as such by their attire.

Theresa Walker raised her hand as if to give an order. But suddenly, from her hand it came a luminous ray that reached the flaming sarcophagus. An intense light enveloped her and the sarcophagus but was soon extinguished. Theresa Walker fell to the floor, panting. The warriors looked at her without knowing what to do.

'K ... kill them,' she murmured, raising a trembling hand.

The warriors raised their swords.

'STOP!,' cried Bruce, raising a hand. 'Stop! I am the legitimate heir of Ras al Ghul! He signaled me and trained me! You must obey me!'

And the warriors stopped suddenly.

'It's true,' said a warrior. 'I was there when the Master identified him as his heir. Like the Dark Knight who would become one day the protector of this city.'

'W ... what are you waiting for, you idiots? I said, kill them!,' Theresa shouted, getting up from the ground.

'No,' answered another of the warriors. 'You no longer have the Demon Head, which has returned with our Master, so we don't have to obey you anymore. And less when you are a woman.'

'A woman who carries in her veins the blood of Ras al Ghul,' retorted another warrior, a woman, raising her katana. 'She is his rightful heiress! Not that brat!,' she pointed at Bruce with contempt.

'Kill them ... KILL THEM ALL!,' ordered Theresa Walker to several of the warriors who had gathered around her.

'She has usurped the Demon's Head and has disobeyed the will of your master, who didn't want to live anymore and chose me as his heir! Finish them!,' Bruce ordered other warriors, pointing to Theresa Walker and those who were around her.

And the warriors began to fight among themselves. It goes without saying that Bruce, Alfred, Selina, Tabitha and Barbara took the opportunity to flee. There were some who wanted to pursue them, but to their dismay they did not carry firearms, so they soon fell under the bullets from Alfred, Tabitha and Barbara.

'I wish there is no one of them left alive after all this,' Selina said, once they had driven to the Sirens club.

'Agree,' Alfred nodded. 'Although I would have preferred that bastard Ras al Ghul was alive while we set him on fire. He deserves it for what he did to my boy.'

'Oddly it sounds to say it, I agree with you, Jeeves,' Selina concluded playfully.


	15. We Will Turn Bruce into a Murderer

The following days, Bruce was very busy. He received visits from FBI agents in charge of the corruption investigation at Wayne Enterprises, and informed them of everything he knew about the Court of Owls. He spoke often with Lucius Fox about the future of Wayne Enterprises and commissioned him to prepare the next shareholders meeting (which would be the first one he attended as an adult) to make sure everything went as he wished. He studied with him names of people valuable for the Board of Directors, to replace the corrupt counselors. He also received a visit from Barbara, who had decided to enter the shareholding of Wayne Enterprises.

'You could be very helpful,' he said.

'Why?'

'Because I'm too nice. To deal with these people, it's necessary to be mean, to be ruthless, as Selina told me some time ago that you had to be to survive on the streets.'

'And what you're telling me is this, since I'm both things, you want me by your side to help you get rid of that bunch of rascals, don't you?'

'Well ... more or less. In return, I can make some calls and get you shares at a low price. Now they are going down a lot because of the investigations.'

'Mmmm ... it sounds good. Since I started helping you to dig up dirt on those people, I've become very interested in the business world. It may be my thing. You know? I have no intention of serving drinks and kick out drunkards all my life.'

'Then, deal?'

'Deal,' Barbara shook his hand. 'It's a pleasure doing business with you, Bruce.'

He also received a visit from Gordon and Bullock, who asked him about a certain Xander Wilde, who apparently had been related to Thomas Wayne, but neither he nor Alfred could tell him much except that he was the author of a project called Wayne Plaza. About what happened in Ras al Ghul's crypt, Gordon informed him that they had recovered quite a few corpses from there, but that among them was not Theresa Walker's. He had investigated at the consulate of Nanda Parbat about the offspring of Ras al Ghul and there they had informed that the latter had two recognized daughters, Talia, of the same age as Bruce, and Nyssa, of Gordon's age. But he had also been told that it was likely that he had more sons or daughters about whom they knew nothing, because Ras al Ghul had had relations with many women (in fact, Nyssa and Talia were daughters from different mothers).

'None of them knew anything about any Theresa Walker.'

'Maybe it's an alias.'

'Maybe. In any case, be careful. Although I don't think she'll try anything against you, at least shortly.'

'Do you think so?'

'From what you told me, a part of the people of that League of Shadows didn't even recognize her as a leader. And she has also lost many of her people. So she will more likely be worried about not being killed than about looking for you. Anyway, be careful. And keep me up to date if something strange happens, okay?'

'Okay.'

'And what about Selina? She's much more vulnerable.'

'We've talked to her to protect her but she said no, that she knows how to protect herself. She says we should take care of protecting you, not her. Because you are more important and she is a nobody. Only street trash.'

'That's not true,' Bruce protested.

'I know, I know,' Gordon nodded. 'In fact, we said that to her. And she told us that many people in the Narrows have their hopes placed on you. They believe in what you've started to do, clean Wayne Enterprises of corruption and all that. They are aware that your father wanted to do that and paid with his life. They also know that you started with that when you were barely a child. They know it's thanks to you that Lee's little clinic is stocked. They've seen you out there, worrying about their problems, which usually nobody important did.'

Bruce felt overwhelmed. He had never stopped to think about people seeing him that way. He thought about his project to become a protector of Gotham, which he had now put on the backburner. Had the time come, perhaps, to retake it? Maybe, he thought.

'Although I must tell you one thing," Gordon continued. 'From the way she said it, I got the feeling that the real reason Selina insisted so much on we protecting you is not that you're very important to a lot of people. The real reason is that she's terrified at the mere possibility of losing you, although she pretends that it wouldn't affect her too much. I think she told me all this because maybe she thought that if she told me the truth, you wouldn't listen to her, but if she revealed to you how important you are to many poor people without resources, you might take more precautions. Because she thinks you run too many risks. She thinks, for example, that you shouldn't have gone to the Ras al Ghul's crypt.'

'You know, Bruce?,' Bullock interjected. 'The first time I saw her I caught her redhanded reaching into my pocket to steal my wallet. And since then I have arrested her for shoplifting or pickpocketing on more than one occasion. If then someone had told me that street thief and the Waynes'son would end up being boyfriend and girlfriend, I would have laughed in his or her face.'

'Now we're talking about that, Bruce, how are you and her?'

Bruce, then, remembered what happened the night of the assault on the crypt of Ras al Ghul, when Selina stripped to her underwear in front of him and even insinuated that the day would come when he would not feel uncomfortable seeing her with so little clothes. He was not naive and knew well where that could lead. But on the other hand, in that matter he was a complete novice. It is true that Alfred had already given him "the talk", but the problem was that no matter how much goodwill he had put, on the other hand, Alfred had led a life almost monastic since the day he left the army, so he could not be very useful in this. But Gordon was different. Maybe he could ask him one or two questions. But he did not want to ask them when Bullock was in front of him.

'I think it would be better if I leave you alone,' Bullock said, getting up and leaving.

Bruce, although not without difficulty, told Gordon what had happened that night and also told him that the snogging with Selina had become more intense, although they had never caressed under their clothes, much less touched in intimate areas. Fortunately, Gordon had a lot of experience interviewing people who did not want to talk and he knew how to make Bruce feel comfortable talking about such personal things.

'I think Barbara must have said Selina one or two things,' laughed Gordon. 'Surely she will have told her that the best way for a woman to make herself desirable for a man is not to jump directly into his pants but to insinuate, to flirt, to suggest, but not to act openly.'

'Do you think that is what she is starting to do?'

'Definitely. Think this, Selina fears more than anything that you will leave her and she wants to hold you by her side, whatever it may be. But on the other hand, she does not want that to be noticed. You must know that she is a very insecure person.'

'What, Selina _insecure_?,' Bruce raised his eyebrows.

'I know it sounds surprising, but she indeed is. She perceives herself as very inferior to you in everything. She fears that one day you will find someone better than her and you will abandon her. That is also the reason why she has traditionally tried to keep people at a distance. So, if they abandon her as her mother abandoned her, it does not hurt her so much.'

Bruce nodded. Lee Thompkins had already told her that more than once. And it hurt to hear it. But he felt powerless because he did not know what to do. Especially since he himself had already failed Selina more than once.

'What I can do?'

'I don't know, Bruce. In that, I can't help you, because as you know I've ruined all the relationships with women I've had. But I can tell you for sure that she loves you. That she loves you _a lot_. That's the fundamental reason why she fears so much that you can abandon her. She really, really loves you, and if you abandon her, that will break her heart.'

Bruce and Gordon talked for a while longer about his relationship with Selina. Bruce told him that Lee was helping him a lot, and he encouraged Gordon to make up with her. He told her about how she had put an end to a macabre contest conducted by Edward Nygma (or rather his twisted double personality, The Riddler) by making the latter recognize he was in love with her, and asked if he liked seeing Lee with such a man.

'No,' admitted Gordon.

Bruce also asked Gordon about the mysterious Xander Wilde, but Gordon was elusive and Bruce did not insist. When he said goodbye, Bruce encouraged him to come see him on his eighteenth birthday, and Gordon promised that he would drop by Wayne Manor when his shift was over.

There was a reason why Gordon did not want Bruce to know much about Wilde. And it was that this person was really nothing more nor less than Jeremiah Valeska, a missing twin brother of Jerome Valeska. Who, with help from Ivy, the Mad Hatter and Mr. Freeze, had kidnapped his brother from the underground concrete labyrinth in which he lived hidden from his brother, whom he feared. The police had also gone there but they have arrived late —Jeremiah Valeska's shelter had been emptied almost completely and Valeska was nowhere to be seen. They only find a video tape recorded by Jerome Valeska. In it, he appeared pointing a gun at his seemingly terrified twin, and saying,

'Dear cops, I'm taking my dear baby brother with me. I'm going to take out his real self, to take out the murderer inside him, even if he doesn't know yet that murderer is there, and together, we'll turn this city into an asylum.'

But the most worrying thing was not that. Most worrying was that the same day, after having locked Jerome in a small room, Theresa Walker had taken Jerome aside, and had said,

'I have a task for you.'

'I work alone, dear.'

'You say you want to turn your brother into a murderer.'

'Is it wrong, perhaps? We are all potential murderers. And we can all go crazy. A bad day is enough to achieve that.'

'I agree. But it doesn't have much merit, to turn your brother into a murderer and to make him go crazy. He's already quite deranged after all these years living alone in that underground concrete maze. The truly meritorious thing is to turn someone who is horrified by the mere idea of killing into a murderer.'

'Are you ... are you talking about someone in particular?'

'You are smart, Jerome,' grinned Theresa Walker. 'Think. Think about who he or she could be. You know him or her.'

'Mmm ... are you talking about Bruce Wayne, maybe? He refused to kill me.'

'Right. What I'm proposing is turning him into a murderer. And not only that, but also making him go crazy.'

'Sounds good! Bruce Wayne, the hope of the disinherited in Gotham, turned into someone like me, a madman and a murderer! It's funny!,' Jerome laughed maniacally.

'I see we really understand each other,' Theresa Walker smiled evilly. 'But I'm not finished.'

'You're not?'

'We'll get him to kill ... his girlfriend.'

'What? That's twisted even for me,' Jerome looked stunned. 'Do you think to seek the help of the Hatter or the human plant to get that?'

'I don't. That wouldn't be funny, don't you think so?'

'You're right. It wouldn't be funny,' Jerome nodded. 'The funny thing would be that Bruce killed his girlfriend consciously. Are you telling me you can get it?'

'Even better. I'm saying that YOU can get it. Listen carefully.'

Theresa Walker whispered something in Jerome's ear. He clapped his hands and laughed.

'You're great, baby, I knew you had it in your blood! Count me in!'

**Hi! I expect you are enjoying this modest fanfic. In the next chapter, we will see how Jerome expects to achieve this. Will he succeed? Bat-hugs for everyone.**


	16. Selina is Kidnapped

'Happy birthday,' Alfred finished singing, putting a birthday cake on the kitchen table of Wayne Manor.

Bruce smiled and blew the candles. He invited Alfred to sit next to him and cut two pieces of cake. They were ready to eat, when Jim Gordon suddenly appeared in the kitchen. He seemed very worried.

'What's wrong?,' Bruce asked.

'We've just received this at theGCPD,' he raised a videotape. 'It comes from Jerome Valeska and it's addressed to you.'

They put the tape in a video player. The vile face of Valeska appeared on the television, with that grimace-grin that Bruce remembered so much the last time, the one in which he wanted to turn him into minced meat by shooting him with a cannon. He was in what looked like a large empty warehouse except for a few boxes.

'Hiiiiya, Brucie,' said Valeska. 'To start, happy birthday. And I have a nice birthday present for you,' the camera zoomed in, and Bruce could see Selina tied hand and foot to a chair, and gagged. 'I'm going to give you the chance to become the Charming Prince who rescues his princess from the dragon's grasp,' he pointed to Selina first and then pointed to himself. 'Of course with a nice novelty. Normally the prince rescues her and marries her. But you will rescue her ... by killing her,' he pulled out a revolver and pointed it at Selina's temple. Bruce felt his heart break when he saw the terrified expression that appeared on the girl's face. They were two words he never expected to see together, "Selina" and "terrified." 'That's going to be my great work. To turn you into a KILLER. Some time ago you did not want to kill me. You did not want to do what you desperately wanted to do. But today, today I'm going to get you to kill your girlfriend. You did not kill me but you will kill your girlfriend. Ha, ha, ha! You will wonder how I am going to achieve it. Simple, dear Brucie. Observe ...'

The camera turned, and Bruce could see a table full of things worryingly similar to torture instruments. A horrible suspicion began to take shape in his mind about what Jerome was planning to do. The camera turned to Selina's face, and in the background Jerome's voice began to be heard describing what he would do to the girl with those horrible contraptions. Gordon made the image move quickly, but even so Bruce could see the expression of complete terror on Selina's face. Then he pushed the "play" key and Jerome ended by saying,

'But you can make this not happen. A bullet in the head of your girlfriend,' he rested the barrel of her revolver on Selina's temple,' and you will avoid her all suffering. If you refuse, I will do all that I have told you and I will broadcast it live to all of Gotham. If you are not here in two hours, I will do all that I have told you and I will broadcast it live to all of Gotham. And if you come with the police, I will do all that I have told you and I will broadcast it live to all of Gotham. Kisses, Bruce,' he blew him a kiss, and the image was replaced by an address written on the screen.

'We do not know how, but Jerome has managed to interfere with the broadcast of all the television channels, and now the only thing you see in them is an image of that same warehouse, but Selina is not there. So he's in a position to fulfill his threat,' Gordon warned.

'And where do I have to go?,' Bruce asked after a moment of awkward silence.

'Nowhere, master B, you're not going to put your head in the lion's mouth!,' Alfred objected. 'Have you forgotten what he wanted to do you?'

'I won't stand by while they torture Selina!'

'Bruce, I understand your pain," Gordon said, putting a hand on his shoulder. 'But we can not let you go there alone. You are too important. Many poor people have their hopes placed on you. If you die, that's over.'

'Jerome has said that they will broadcast everything live. What do you think they will think if I don't show up? That I am a coward that leaves the girl to whom ... to whom ...,' he was not able to pronounce the words "I love".

'Only words. It will soon be forgotten,' objected Gordon.

'I agree,' Alfred agreed.

'Are you telling me to sit here doing nothing?'

'Sometimes it's the only solution, Master Bruce," Alfred replied. 'This is a war and a war sometimes demands sacrifices. I speak from experience,' Alfred said and Gordon nodded.

'Sa ... sacrifices?,' Bruce looked speechlessly at Alfred. 'Are you saying to leave her in the hands of Jerome Valeska? No! No way!'

'Think about it, Bruce. If you go, they will force you to kill her. If you don't go, they will torture her to death. There's nothing you can do,' Gordon replied.

'You are wrong! I can try to save it. I own her. Especially because if this has happened it's because of me, because I didn't want to kill Jerome. I wish I had done it when I had the chance.'

He got up and was about to go to the garage when Gordon held him back.

'What are you doing, Jim?'

'I'm sorry, Bruce, but I can't let you go. Let the SWATs take care.'

'Take care of collecting Selina's body, yes,' Bruce replied harshly. 'Let me GO.'

'I won't.'

'Jim ... really, I'm sorry to do this, but you don't leave me an alternative ...'

And before Gordon could answer, Bruce's fist crashed into Gordon's face, who staggered back a few steps. Both he and Alfred stood motionless for a moment, stupefied. Bruce took advantage and ran away. Alfred came after him, but he did not arrive in time and could only see the car he had just given Bruce speeding out of the Wayne Manor garage.

'Citizens of Gotham,' said Jerome, speaking to a camera. 'Our friend and neighbor Jerome Valeska speaks to you, faithful to his mission to bring out the worst that each one of you has inside. I invite you to be witnesses the spectacle of torture and dismemberment live of this young girl, I have no idea what her name is but I do know she is Bruce Wayne's girlfriend,' she pointed to Selina Kyle, who was tied to her feet and hands to a table. 'And to help us, I invited my friend The Dentist,' he pointed to a very tall, thin, completely bald man wearing a medical gown. 'An expert in torturing causing the maximum pain. I hope you enjoy the show! And reflect on the fact that my dear friend Bruce Wayne has not appeared. He has not wanted to spare his beloved girlfriend a few hours of horrible and dreadful agony. But how could it be otherwise, he is Bruce Wayne, the richest man in Gotham, and she is ... I do not know what her name is, but it is clear that she is a nobody whom Bruce Wayne would have thrown away anyway.'

'Sick bastard. Untie me and you'll see if I'm a nobody,' snorted Selina, trying to keep calm.

'Tch, tch, dear. We are live,' Jerome pointed to a group of television screens behind him, in which his image could be seen. 'In all the TV channels. The people of Gotham will not like to hear you swear. As we were saying, our friend Bruce Wayne has decided that he is too cowardly to come here and spare his girlfriend hours of agony. So let's proceed. Doctor,' pointed to the Dentist.

'We'll start with something very basic," said the Dentist, whose image appeared on the television sets. 'The whip. We will use the whip of our dear friend to put all her skin red hot and prepare it for what comes next.'

He approached a table and picked up a whip, Selina's whip. He clicked it in the air. Selina struggled, trying to free herself.

'JEROME!,' a voice called out.

Jerome turned around. It was Bruce. The camera turned to him, and Bruce's image appeared on the television sets. Selina sighed and shook her head from side to side.

'Let her go!'

'No, no, no, Brucie,' Jerome wagged his finger. 'She's not going to get out of here alive. The question is whether she will suffer hours and hours of torture at the hands of my friend the Dentist, or if she will have a quick and painless death, inflicted by his own boyfriend. And by the way, if you try to use the only bullet this revolver will have,' he twirled his revolver around his finger,' against one of us, these other friends of mine...' he pointed to a small group of his followers who were stationed at different points in the room ' ... will kill you and immediately they will cut your girlfriend into pieces and they will eat them.'

'They won't!,' Bruce looked at Jerome in horror.

'Of course they will, Brucie. Anyone is capable of doing anything if they are pressured enough. And more if my friend Jervis Tetch helps them a little,' Jerome laughed. 'But it's in your hand to avoid it. One shot, and you can leave, and give your girlfriend a dignified burial. What do you choose?'

'Can I talk to her?'

'Of course, Brucie. Some last moments alone. I'm going to turn off the camera and leave you alone so you can have privacy.'

'Could you untie it?'

'I'm afraid not. Although we can choose an intermediate solution. We untie her from the table but we tie her hands and feet.'

Jerome did it so. Selina sit down on the table, her hands tied to her back, while Jerome went to the camera and turned it off.

'You have ten minutes, lovebirds. My followers will be on the other side of that door, and I will retire to my small production studio. See you later, guys.'

Jerome retired through one door and his followers through another. Bruce approached Selina.

'What are you doing here, you stupid douchebag?,' she asked.

'Rescuing you.'

Selina raised her eyebrows and snorted as she shook her head, in a gesture that was very typical of her.

'I don't mean to offend you, Bruce, but it doesn't seem like you're in a position to rescue anyone.'

'I think I am,' he approached a table full of what were obviously instruments of torture and took from it Selina's switchblade, which he placed in her hands secretly.

'Can you cut your ties?'

'No problem. The difficulty will be later. Those guys have guns and as soon as they see me free myself, they'll make a lot of bullet holes in you and they'll tear me to pieces. I do not think that helps us much.'

'Trust me, Selina.'

'Are you going to shoot Jerome?'

'Just trust me. Whatever happens, trust me.'

'Bruce, do you realize that it is possible that we both will end up dead?'

'I know. It's very risky. And since it's possible, even probable, that in a few minutes we are both dead, I want to get a thing clear. I love you, Selina Kyle. I have loved you since that day when we played to throw bagels to each other. '

In spite of herself, Selina could not stop a tear from escaping her.

'Even if you're an idiot, arrogant, pompous and self-righteous billionaire who seems to be eager to be killed, I love you too, Bruce Wayne. I have loved you since you came for a while to live with me in the Narrows.'

Bruce hugged Selina tightly, and the two young people stayed that way for a while. Meanwhile, Selina cut her ligatures secretly using her knife.

'Time is up!,' Jerome yelled, entering the room again. 'Have you already decided, Brucie?'

'Yes. I'll kill her. I can't bear to see her suffer for hours. '

'Great. But I warn you, if you vacillate and don't pull the trigger, my boys will catch you, will tie you to that chair, and you'll have to witness the torture until the end. And they will force you not to look away. It is clear?'

'Crystaline.'

Jerome snapped his fingers. Two of his assassins seized Selina and forced her to stay still. Another placed a bullet in the revolver and handed it to Bruce.

'Camera!' Jerome yelled. One of his assassins lit the camera, and the image of Bruce with the revolver appeared on the television sets.

'Action!'

Then, Bruce pointed the revolver at Jerome's temple, which burst out laughing.

'Hey Hey hey. What did I tell you? That bullet must go to your girlfriend's head. Or else, my kids will cut her into pieces and you will have to see it. If you shoot in the air or drop the revolver, it will be the same. You have no choice. '

'You're wrong, Jerome. There is a fourth possibility, which you haven't even thought about. '

And then, Bruce turned the barrel of the revolver to his own body and pulled the trigger! The revolver blasted, and Bruce fell to the ground, struck down!

**Hi everyone! I suppose that in this moment you wish Jerome to torture me and to tear me to pieces. Just read the next chapter!**


	17. Selina is Kidnapped (Cont)

Seeing Bruce fall to the ground, Selina felt for a moment that her heart stopped. No, that was not happening. It could not be possible. Bruce could not be dead, no, no, no, no, the very idea was unbearable. She tried to shout but she could not.

'Fucking bloody hell!,' exclaimed Jerome. 'This, I did not expect it,' he approached Bruce. 'What do I do now? What good is it to torture Bruce's girlfriend if Bruce is not alive to witness it?'

And then, Selina's strong instinct for survival awakened. Her task now was to get out of there alive. She realized that, with what had just done, Bruce had created a distraction. Especially because Jerome's followers, hypnotized by Jervis Tetch, looked like stunned, without reacting. With one tug she released the ropes that bound her hands (already very worn by her knife), she quickly untied her feet, she hooked the whip to her waist and charged against Jerome, whom she knocked down. Jerome laughed when Selina climbed on him and put the knife against his neck.

'Good, good, good, precious. Let your killer inside come out. Cut my neck. Disembowel me. Stab me. Become a murderer.'

At that moment, shots were heard outside. Selina turned her face and that was a serious mistake, because it distracted her for a moment and that allowed Jerome to shake her off. Jerome pulled out a revolver but Selina, faster, disarmed him with a whiplash and seized the revolver. Jerome laughed again.

'Impressive, baby. Come on, you do have a gun and I don't. Shoot me'

'Gladly!,' Selina said fiercely, aiming Jerome with the revolver. Strangely, none of Jerome's followers reacted. Outside, shots were still being heard.

'No, no, no,' Jerome wagged his finger. 'You're not a murderer. You won't be able to shoot me in cold blood. And if you shoot me, you will miss.'

'You really think so? You've just killed my ... my boyfriend, you son of a bitch,' Selina realized that she, until then, had never referred to Bruce as her" boyfriend". 'At this moment, nothing would make me happier than killing you.'

'Oh, dear. I don't know if you have noticed it, but it was him who shot himself. I did not intend to kill him, believe me. I'm innocent from his blood.'

'I don't care, pig. If he's dead,' Selina felt a searing pang when she uttered the word "dead", 'it's your fault. Pray what you know because you're going to die.'

Selina raised the gun, fired ... and missed. Jerome laughed aloud.

'I told you, you wouldn't be able to shoot me!,' he looked at his followers. 'You, shoot her!'

Jerome's followers raised their guns. Selina fired twice and missed again. She ran and managed to hide behind a pile of boxes before the others started firing. She fired again and again, but she missed once more. She was not used to handling firearms. In fact, she had never shot anyone directly. She had only shot the air until then.

'This is the end,' she thought, as Jerome's followers approached her. 'At least, I will be able to meet Bruce in the next life.'

She looked at Bruce's aparently lifeless body and felt a tear tremble under her eyelids. She saw that one bullet remained in the revolver. Then, she thought of using it to kill herself, because she was afraid that Jerome would kill her in a terrible and sadistic way. She looked at Bruce again, and felt something wet and warm slip down his cheek. A tear.

'See you, Bruce,' she said to herself.

She opened her mouth and prepared to put the gun barrel in it, when suddenly the Penguin, Edward Nygma, Butch Gilzean, several burly guys and Lee Thompkins entered the warehouse. They were all armed.

'What the hell?,' Jerome shouted.

And before he could order anything from his followers (who evidently did not do anything if he did not order him), the newcomers had shot everyone down. Lee Thompkins approached Selina.

'Are you OK?'

Selina got up and ran to Bruce. She knelt next to his...corpse?

'Bruce, tell me something, don't do this to me, you can't leave me like that, you fucking, egocentric, self-righteous and prude bastard!,' sobs began to drown out her voice. She grabbed the inert Bruce and began to shake and slap him. Two of the newcomers had to force her away, while Lee crouched down next to Bruce and began to attend to him. Meanwhile, Edward Nygma phoned the 911.

'Doc,' exclaimed Butch Gilzean. 'The clownish monster is still alive. What do we do with it?,' he pointed at Jerome.

'Leave him to me. This monster wanted to be the star of a show and we're going to please him,' said the Penguin, smiling wickedly. 'You, take him from here.'

Butch picked Jerome up like a sack of potatoes and took him from there, followed by several of the newcomers. Only Selina, the Penguin, Nygma, Lee and the inert Bruce remained in the warehouse. Selina knelt down next to Bruce. Lee had left his chest exposed and was applying pressure to the bullet wound.

'Is he ... is he...?,' Selina felt a huge lump in her throat and was unable to utter the word "dead".

'It's alive, if that's what worries you. But he is losing a lot of blood. Compress here,' explained Lee Thompkins.

Selina obeyed. While her hands were getting soaked with Bruce's blood, she could not help but think of that twelve-year-old boy in a solitary alley kneeling by the bodies of his murdered parents, his hands soaking in their blood too. She could not help but think that on that day she could have done something to comfort and encourage him after having witnessed that horror. She had already redeemed herself for not having done anything to prevent the crime, now she could redeem himself for not having consoled that terrified child.

'Cat,' said the Penguin. 'I know what you feel, I know what it is to lose a loved one.'

'HE IS NOT DEAD!,' Selina roared. 'If you suggest something like that again, I'll get your eyes out with my knife!'

'Believe me, she will,' interjected Lee Thompkins, who was still compressing the bullet wound. 'Oswald, you'd better go, you're making her nervous.'

'OK, I'm leaving. But be sure, Cat, that Jerome will pay for what he has done. What if I make Butch publicly tear off his limbs one by one and throw them to the crowd? He has always appreciated you, surely he will be happy to do it.'

In spite of herself, Selina smiled. Lee, on the other hand, looked at the Penguin in horror.

'Are you going to be sentimental, Doc? These types of monsters are not killed by bullets. It's not enough, you have to destroy them, you have to kill their legend. Why, Jerome has even created a cult for himself!'

'Monsters? The pot said to the kettle ...'

'I want what normal people want. I want money, power, love. I want a better Gotham for everyone. People like Valeska do not want any of that. They only want destruction. They are not even human. Therefore, there is no problem in crushing them like cockroaches.'

And with that said, the Penguin came out.

Selina, finally, collapsed as she had collapsed after what happened with Bridgit Pike. But that was worse, a thousand times worse. Because she had made a huge mistake. She had lowered her defenses and had allowed Bruce to come too close to her. That's why she used to try to keep people at a distance, because if they left her or simply disappointed her, then it was not so painful for her. Because that hurt, indeed. How much it hurt, just thinking about the possibility of Bruce not being part of her life anymore. Selina cried like she had not cried since that terrible night when her mother abandoned her in an orphanage. She made this resolution —if Bruce survived, she had to break up with him. True, they had confessed their mutual love, but that was because they believed they had only a few minutes left to live.

The next thing Selina saw clearly was that she was sitting in a corridor of the Gotham General Hospital. Alone. Because Lee, who had been with Bruce in the ambulance, had gone with him into the ER. She was not sure how she had got there. Perhaps because the pain she was feeling was so great that she could hardly perceive what was happening around her. Minutes passed. No news. No one. She felt terribly alone, more alone than ever. She realized that she had a simple way to end that pain. She pulled out her switchblade and opened it. A stab in her leg, turn the blade to cause more damage, remove the blade, and she would bleed to death. She rested the tip of the knife on her thigh. She raised the knife and prepared to stick it into her thigh.

'SELINA, NO!,' shouted two horrified voices.

Selina felt her heart stop when she heard those voices. Because one of them was ...

'B...Bruce,' she whispered, raising her eyes.

'Yes, Selina,' answered Bruce from a stretcher which was being moved by Lee Thompkins and a hospital porter. 'It's me.'

Selina weighed various ways to kill him for having made her suffer in that way.

'Y...you're alive.'

'Yes,' grinned Lee Thompkins. 'And he is not even seriously injured. That kind of bulletproof vest that he wore slowed down the bullet enough so that it did not cause very serious damage. What has made him lose consciousness has been the same impact, not the damage that the bullet has caused, which is very scarce. Besides, he followed my instructions and aimed the gun so that the trajectory of the bullet did not affect the liver or the kidneys.'

'I...I don't understand.'

'Before going to where Valeska kept you prisoner, Bruce went to see me and explained what he was going to do. Nygma told him that if he wanted to kill himself it would be quicker for him to shoot in his mouth, because a shot in the abdomen can suppose a long and very painful agony, but Bruce told me about a special suit that Lucius Fox had made him. I insisted on that his plan was complete madness, but he remained firm. He's a very stubborn guy, Selina,' explained Lee.

Selina rolled her eyes and snorted as she shook her head, in such a way that the viewers of the "Gotham" series know so well. That was exactly the kind of stupid thing that Bruce would do.

'Know that I'm indecisive, Bruce. I don't know whether to strangle you or stab you for the bad time you've put me through.'

'I love you too, Selina,' grinned Bruce. Selina snorted again, but she did not object.

'Girl, we have to take your boyfriend to a room. He needs rest,' said the porter.

'OK, OK.'

They carried the stretcher to a hospital room. Selina, almost without realizing it, had taken Bruce's hand. But she did not want to look him in the face. Because she knew well that if she did, her already weak firmness would disappear. She would probably lie on top of him and would kill him, not by stabbing but by kissing.

'I think we'd better leave you some privacy, guys,' the hospital porter winked. 'Dr. Thompkins has told me what your boyfriend did for you, girl. Such a madness is only made by people who are deeply in love. You are very lucky to have a boyfriend who is so in love with you. Not many Gotham girls could say the same.'

Bruce and Selina were left alone. Selina looked indifferent, as she always did. But the truth is that at that moment she was feeling a thousand different and contradictory things. What should she do? Just at that moment, Gordon (with his brown trenchcoat) and Alfred entered the room. She felt relieved. With them present, she would not have to do anything special. Just be there. But then, Bruce looked at them with an unusual severity in him.

'Now I don't want to talk to you. Please, go.'

'Bruce, I ...', begun Jim Gordon, who had a bruise on his face.

'You tried to stop me from going to rescue her, Jim. And you too, Alfred!,' he said accusingly.

'What? Why didn't you listen to them, you asshole?,' Selina shouted. 'Now you would not be like that!'

'You're alive and I'm alive, right? And you've heard Dr. Thompkins, it's not even a serious injury,' objected Bruce.

'Why? Why have you risked so much for me, Bruce?,' Selina asked, noticing that tears were trembling again under her eyelids. Damn, how she hated feeling this vulnerable.

'To begin with, because you would have done it too. And don't try to deny it, because I'm not going to believe you.'

And Selina did not deny it. Because, as she knew well, it was very true. True, she would not have done such a stupid thing, but surely she would probably have done some other, maybe even more stupid. And she could not fool herself about what all that implied. The dreaded (for her) "L-word".

'Alfred, Jim, come out. There is something I want to ask Selina. Alone.'

Although reluctantly, Gordon and Alfred left. Bruce looked at Selina for a long time.

'What?,' the girl asked.

'Come here.'

Selina came closer. Although she was only six feet away, it seemed to her that she had walked half a mile or so. Bruce took her hand. Selina began to panic when she realized what Bruce was going to ask of her.

'Selina Kyle, will you...?'

**Ha, ha, ha! I love cliffhangers! In the next chapter, we will know what Bruce is going to ask Selina.**


	18. The Wedding

'Will you live for me?'

'What?,' Selina looked at Bruce, not knowing how to react.

'I'm asking you if you want to live for me. I don't think it's very difficult, you've always been a great survivor,' Bruce explained patiently.

'This ... I ...,' Selina stammered, disappointed, disappointed?

'You seem disappointed. What happened, Selina?'

'Me? Disappointed? Why?,' Selina laughed nervously.

'I don't know. Maybe you want to explain it to me. Because I think you were expecting another question. I get the feeling that you expected me to ask for you in marriage or something like that.'

Selina felt that her stomach was going down a couple of meters or so. Yes, it was neither more nor less than that. On the one hand, she felt panic at that possibility. But on the other ... on the other ... no, that was absurd. She, the street trash, becoming wife of the richest man in Gotham? The very idea sounded ridiculous.

'OK, OK, I admit that I have fantasized a bit with that possibility.'

'Me too. But we have to be realistic, Selina. That's why I've asked you to live for me, not to marry me. Because I can't stand the idea of a life that you are not part of, but asking you to marry me would be asking you too much. Not to mention that I would place a bull's-eye on your back, because everyone would know about you.'

Selina blinked slightly. She was not sure about what to say.

'Say yes, stupid,' exclaimed Barbara, who had entered the room and was listening without manifesting her presence.

'Say yes to what?'

'Kitty Cat, what Bruce has just done is asking you to marry him, but in a way adapted to your way of being and feeling. He knows well that if he asks it to you directly, you would say no almost automatically although deep down you would have wished ardently to say yes. On the one hand you don't conceive a life without Bruce, but, on the other, it terrifies you to commit yourself to someone, it has always been that way. So he has indirectly raised that possibility for you to think about it. Surely the next thing he was going to do was to give you reasons why he did not want to ask you in marriage with the secret hope you would discard them. And when you had rejected them all, he would have said something like, "Well, it seems that the idea of us getting married is not so absurd after all." Am I doing well, Bruce?'

'As if you read my mind, Barbara,' Bruce smiled.

Selina shook her head and snorted.

'And why do you think getting married would be a bad idea?'

Bruce begun to give reasons. And to Selina's surprise, Barbara was right. Because Selina found reasons to discard them all.

'Well, it seems that the idea of us getting married is not so absurd after all,' grinned Bruce.

'Oh, shut up,' Selina snorted, putting the same expression she had put that day when Bruce said, "Does that mean you're my girlfriend?".

Some days later, at night, the old Narrows fighting club looked very different. The ropes of the ring had been removed and in its place there was a stage with candles. Everything had been carefully swept and cleaned. They had placed chairs to accommodate the crowd. In the first row, there were Alfred, Lucius, Tabitha, Lee, Butch Gilzean, Edward Nygma (dressed in his black bowler hat, his black tie and his green suit) and Harvey Bullock. The rest were modest people from the area, but which had helped rescue Bruce and Selina from Jerome's clutches. On the stage, there were Bruce, elegantly dressed, and Gordon, who wore his inseparable brown trenchcoat (he had offered to wear the full-dress uniform of the police, but he had been told that in the Narrows that trenchcoat had become an inseparable part of his public image as the first GCPD officer who really took pains to solve the crimes commited in The Narrows).

'Nervous, Bruce?,' asked Jim Gordon, patting Bruce's arm.

'A little bit, Jim.'

'I'll tell you something that will make you feel more calm. We have managed to capture all the Arkham escapees, including the Scarecrow and Jervis Tetch, who now calls himself The Mad Hatter. They had kidnapped Jeremiah, Jerome's twin brother ... '

'Wait, did Jerome have a twin brother?'

'Yes. They were separated because when they were ten years old Jerome tried to burn Jeremiah alive. Since then, he has lived in a constant terror to be found. In fact, he did not ever leave the underground concrete labyrinth where he lived. He communicated with his clients through an assistant who called himself Ecco.'

'Poor guy.'

'Yes, poor guy. And finally, he was found. I don't know what they did to him, but now he is on the verge of mental collapse. Possibly, the Scarecrow or Jervis Tetch have been fiddling with his mind. Anyway, I find it difficult for Jeremiah to testify in a trial. However, he has said something that will interest you. '

'What's it?'

'When he was captured, he was working on a project of power generators with almost unlimited capacity.'

'That's interesting. If they work, that could help the people in this neighborhood to have cheap electricity. Many people here are dying of cold because they can't even afford it. '

'That's what he told me. He asked me to give his plans and diagrams to the R&D division of Wayne Enterprises so that they can finish it, because he doesn't see himself able to continue. He thought you would be interested.'

'I am. I will give orders to Lucius to take care of everything. '

'Sssh. Here she comes.'

Sure enough, Selina was coming down the stairs on Barbara's arm. She wore a simple but elegant black dress. And she was carefully combed and made up, something strange in her. The fact was that when she took care of her physical appearance, Selina was really beautiful. She did not have a spectacular figure, but that did not matter because when you saw her, her most attractive feature was her face, unquestionably feline. And that day, her makeup and hairstyle favored this trait of her.

'You're very pretty,' Bruce told her once she was on stage and Barbara sat next to Tabitha (who had insisted on standing between Lee and Barbara to have fun watching the two women swoop at each other, but at the same time to ensure that they did not kill each other).

'Shut up,' Selina whispered, visibly nervous.

'Friends,' Gordon told the audience. 'Normally, in these circumstances you start by giving a long and boring speech about how wonderful love is, and saying a lot of silly things about it. But today I'm not going to do it. For starters, Selina would say something like that "no, Jim, you're wrong, I'm not in love, it's just that I can't stop thinking of this idiot billionaire boy, that I would do anything for him, however difficult or dangerous it may be, and, finally, that I can no longer live a life of which he is not a part."'

Everyone laughed, and Bruce more than anyone. Even Selina smiled slightly.

'But above all, because the story of these two extraordinary young people has been marked from the beginning by pain and tragedy. I met Bruce when he had just seen how his parents were killed before his eyes. Then, I told him that it didn't matter how dark the world seemed to him then, because behind the darkness there is always light. And I was not wrong. What's more, I'm glad I was the one who brought the light to Bruce's life,' he turned to Selina. 'I took Selina to Wayne Manor and since then nothing was the same in the lives of these two young people. Selina was light for Bruce. But Bruce was light for Selina too.'

Selina looked down. The thing was that the intensity of what she was feeling at that moment was exceeding the limits of her ability to control her emotional expressions.

'He gave her something she had never had since her mother left her years ago in an orphanage. He gave her hope. Hope that her life could be more than just surviving and trying to get alive the next day. He made her show qualities that perhaps she did not even know she had. He brought to light her compassion, her concern for the disposessed, her strong sense of right and wrong and, above all, her strength and courage. I said not too long ago that Bruce was safer with her at his side than with twenty police escorting him, and I keep it. '

'The story of these two extraordinary young people has not been always a happy story. They came from very different worlds. They had very different ways of seeing things. They have often fought, and they have separated several times. But there is the true greatness of love. Not in sublime and tender feelings, however important they may be. But in that it gives you the strength to move forward and overcome obstacles, no matter how big they are.'

'Can you get to the point, Jim?,'asked Selina.

'Of course. Can you hold hands? '

'If it's necessary...,' Selina replied, with an expression of mock annoyance, but taking Bruce's hands anyway.

'Bruce Wayne. Do you accept Selina Kyle as your lawfully wedded wife, to love her, to take care of her and to honor her, in health and in sickness, in good and bad, in joys and sorrows, in wealth and in poverty...'

'Man, that "poverty" thing is not very like him,' Selina joked, causing a general laugh.

'Sssh,' said Bruce.

'In wealth and in poverty, until death separates you.'

'I do,' Bruce replied.

'And you, Selina Kyle, do you do the same?'

'I don't know ... I have to think about it,' joked Selina, then, seeing Bruce's horrified face, she added quickly, 'Of course I do, you douchebag!'

'And by the power vested in me by myself in person, I declare you husband and wife. '

Everyone got up and clapped loudly while Bruce and Selina hugged and kissed passionately. Then, Bruce hugged Jim Gordon, who dried a tear.

'You know, Bruce? Even if you're not my son, you must know I have loved you as such since almost the day we met. And I feel as happy as if you were really my son.'

'I know, I know, Jim,' Bruce nodded, visibly moved. 'And you have been like a surrogate father for me.'

'Jim, I'm nothing of what you said I am. But thanks anyway, 'said Selina, who had wet cheeks.

'No grudges, Selina?' Gordon asked, holding out his hand.

'Oh, shut up,' replied the young woman, hugging him and then kissing him on both cheeks.

'You know, Lee? Today I feel so happy that I have not even thought of ways to kill you, 'Barbara whispered.

'Funny, me neither. But don't make it a habit. Don't even think I've forgotten.'

'Ladies, ladies,' Tabitha scolded them. 'Today is the day of Selina and the billionaire boy.'

'I wonder what Mr. Wayne would think if he saw who Bruce has chosen as his wife,' Alfred told Lucius Fox.

'He would think that he has chosen a girl as brave as a lioness and as loyal as a wolf, and that although she is legally a thief, she is less of a thief than many Wayne Enterprises executives.'

'You're right in that, mate. They steal using the law, and she steals by violating it. She is not a hypocrite, at least. '

'And in any case, it's his decision. Bruce is already of legal age. Mr. Wayne would have respected it even if he did not fully share it. And Mrs. Wayne had accepted any girl who made his boy happy. And Selina does.'

'That is also true,' nodded Alfred.

'And finally, don't forget that he welcomed you into his family even though you have done much worse things than she has ever done.'

'Gotcha, Lucius,' Alfred nodded again.


	19. Nyssa al Ghul

'Are you sure it's a good idea to go see Jerome's twin?,' Selina asked, while Bruce's car was driving she and Bruce to the entrance to the underground labyrinth where Jeremiah Valeska lived.

'He has insisted on seeing me. He has suffered at the hands of Jerome, like me. And his power generator project with almost infinite capacity is great, that's what Lucius told me,' said Bruce.

'I don't know, I don't know,' the girl replied, stroking the handle of her whip. 'Something tells me this is going to end badly.'

They parked the car next to what looked like a small concrete bunker, next to which Ecco, Jeremiah's assistant, was waiting for them. She led them inside, through a maze of concrete galleries, until they entered a room full of TV screens, where they could see different corridors and rooms. There was also a table full of papers. In that room, there was someone else, who could not be anything but Jeremiah Valeska, since he was identical with Jerome before Theo Galavan killed him for the first time.

'Hello, Bruce,' Jeremiah greeted him. 'Nice to meet you, at last.'

They shook hands. Bruce saw that Jerome seemed very tense. He remembered what Gordon had told him on his wedding day and associated that with what he was seeing now. He felt compassion for Jeremiah because he knew what sort of person Jerome was and what he was capable of. What kind of horrors and tortures he would have inflicted on his twin?

'Gordon told me that Jerome kidnapped you,' said Bruce.

'That's right. But I don't know what he wanted from me exactly. Clearly, he didn't want to kill me because he could have done it many times but he did not. '

'And what did he do to you, Mr. Valeska?'

'Call me Jeremiah, all right, Bruce?'

'OK.'

'He read me his diaries over and over again. More than once he had Dr. Crane spray me with his gas of fear. And on the same day he was publicly butchered, I received a package he had prepared for me before he died. I opened it, and I was sprayed in the face with a gas designed by Dr. Crane, which causes a violent laugh. Since then I see Jerome's face everywhere. Sometimes I have the feeling that he's going to come back from the grave to kill me. '

'Jerome is dead.'

'And he came back once,' retorted Jeremiah.

'Then, his body was intact. Not now. I myself saw people in the Narrows tear him to pieces and feed the dogs with his remains,' Selina replied calmly.

Bruce shuddered. And Jeremiah too, judging by his face.

'That's horrible,' he said.

'Yes, it is. But it's also the only way to make impossible for another Dr. Strange to appear to resurrect him. It gives me chills, seeing that here in Gotham it seems that it's not true anymore that you only live once,' replied Selina nonchalantly.

Bruce and Jeremiah, then, started talking about the power generators project. They worked very well, but they had a drawback that Wayne Enterprises' R&D department had discovered, that if they overheated they became real bombs, capable of knocking down an entire skyscraper. Selina, meanwhile, was browsing the papers on the table, constantly throwing glances at Jeremiah. A suspicious expression appeared on her face, but she said nothing.

'How were you rescued, Jeremiah?,' asked Bruce.

'Someone inside called the police. That woman thought her sister did it. '

'What woman?'

'A woman with a very strange name, who was there very often, usually accompanied by several more women armed with swords and pistols.'

'You don't remember her name, do you?'

'Nyssa Al Goal or something like that.'

'Nyssa al Ghul?,' asked Bruce, uneasy. Selina looked up.

'That's it. Nyssa al Ghul. She had a sister who was there very often too. I remember her name, her name was Talia. Those two women did not get along well although they were sisters, I heard them arguing often. And by the way, they talked a lot about you. '

'What did they say?,' asked Selina, visibly restless.

'Very strange things. Talia said that your destiny was to become a kind of black knight protector of Gotham or something similar and that their job should be to make that come true, and Nyssa said that all that was nonsense and that they had a duty to avenge the death of their father. '

'Ras al Ghul.'

'Yes, I think I remember they said he was called like that. Do you know what they meant by avenging the death of their father?'

'No,' lied Bruce, who had the feeling that something was not going well there although he could not say what.

'I get it. And I suppose you don't know what's that about the black knight of Gotham. '

'No, I don't.'

Jeremiah nodded. Bruce again had the feeling that something there was wrong. Then, Selina intervened.

'Bruce, I think we should go now.'

'Are you leaving? But we're having a great time!,' objected Jeremiah, whose face had a strange expression on it.

'Yes, yes. Let's go,' Selina insisted.

Jeremiah took a step toward them and made a move to reach into his jacket pocket. But Selina was faster, she drew her bullwhip and with a quick movement grabbed Jeremiah's two wrists with the lash of the whip. Then, she kicked his belly, knocking him to the ground, and then she kicked his face. She grabbed all the papers with one hand, grabbed Bruce's hand with the other and forced him out of the room. Then she locked the door and broke the key inside the lock.

'Can you tell what was the reason for all this?,' said Bruce as they roamed the halls of the labyrinth.

'This, I've seen that Theresa Walker on one of the TV screens, methinks she's none other than that Nyssa al Ghul.'

'If indeed it's her, maybe she has come to kidnap Jeremiah again.'

'Bullshit. She's in cahoots with him. Let's go or we'll meet her and her murderers. '

And unfortunately for them, Selina was right. When they turned a corridor, they met Theresa Walker and several armed women, pointing submachine guns at them.

'Hi, guys,' smiled Theresa Walker. 'Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nyssa al Ghul and I'm delighted to finally meet my father's murderers. No, dear, I wouldn't do that,' she added when Selina reached for the handle of her whip. 'Girls,catch them.'

The murderers of Nyssa al Ghul fell on Bruce and Selina. But they did not know who they were facing. And since they were in a narrow place, their numerical advantage was not so overwhelming. Besides, that same lack of space meant that they could not use their firearms properly. To the surprise of Nyssa al Ghul, they were soon defeated. Nyssa intervened in the fight but Selina stabbed her in the abdomen. Before Bruce could protest, Selina forced him to run. They left the bunker, got into the car, Bruce started it and soon they were far away.

'Where we go?'

'Let's see Jim Gordon. And quickly, now we have discovered them, they'll surely accelerate their plans. '

'Are you sure what you're saying, Selina?' Gordon asked once they were in his office and Selina told him everything.

'Totally, Jim. That chap is up to no good. I'm convinced that he has cheated Bruce and has used Wayne Enterprises media to build a bunch of bombs passing them off as generators. And I also have serious doubts that it's true that his brother tortured him.'

'He was separated from Jerome to protect him from his brother when he was a child.'

'And how do you know that was true? How do you know he didn't invent that fairy tale of Jerome trying to kill him? Jim, I'm telling you, that guy wants to blow half the city up using those supposed generators. '

'Even assuming that's true, where are they now?'

'Stored in the R&D division of Wayne Enterprises,' explained Bruce.

'He'll surely try to steal them,' said Selina. You have to put surveillance there, before Jeremiah arrives.'

The telephone rang. Jim Gordon answered. An expression of concern appeared on his face.

'Thank you. I'll send a team to investigate it,' he hung up the phone. 'Too late, Selina.'

'You mean they've already stolen those generators?'

'That's what I mean.'

'But how is it possible? We've been there very recently!'

'Bruce, it's obvious that they had it planned in advance. Jeremiah has called you to his house to keep you distracted and, in passing, to put you in the hands of Nyssa al Ghul. Meanwhile, his people stole those generators. I told you it was a bad idea to go see Jeremiah. We've fallen into his trap like fools,' snorted Selina

'Now that doesn't matter. The question is, where will they be placed?,' Bruce asked, paling. 'If what Lucius Fox says is true, those generators, conveniently placed, can cause a huge destruction. Because if you put one in a skyscraper and the generator explodes, the falling skyscraper can crush many houses. And taking into account that as some twenty or thirty have been manufactured... you can imagine the result. They can leave Gotham as if it had been bombed ... and all thanks to the means and the money with that I contributed.'

'Maybe these papers will help us find out,' the girl replied, handing Gordon the papers she had taken from Jeremiah's desk.

'It doesn't look like you can get much out of this,' Gordon objected.

'Take them to Ed Nygma. Surely, if you tell him what you know about Nyssa al Ghul and Jeremiah Valeska, you'll be able to get something out,' Selina suggested.

At that moment, the GCPD captain's phone rang again. He pick it up.

'Hi, Jeremiah ... Yes, I'm already aware. What? No way. We won't give you Bruce Wayne. What are you telling me to do? To look at the clock tower? '

At that moment, Bullock knocked on Gordon's door.

'Come in!'

'Jim, the clock tower has just exploded!,'spluttered Bullock

'I'm coming, Bullock. Wait a minute,' Gordon said, covering the phone's microphone and signaling Bullock to leave, then he uncovered it. 'I need to talk to Bruce Wayne. What? Six hours? Understood. Goodbye.'

'Let me guess. Jeremiah demands you to hand him Bruce in exchange for telling you where they're going to place the bombs, and they have already blown up the clock tower to warn you that this is serious, isn't it so?,' Selina asked.

Bruce started to get up, but Selina forced him to sit down again.

'You already have me fed up with your hero complex. What if you let the police do their job? '

'And what happens if they fail and Jeremiah detonates the bomb-generators?'

'Well, let them explode! That's not your problem! Why are you obsessed with turning everything that happens in this city into something personal? Maybe you've swallowed all those bullshit that you're going to become Gotham's protector? For once, be a bit selfish and save your skin!,' said Selina, exasperated.

'Maybe I can avoid a catastrophe by surrendering to Jeremiah.'

'And how do you know they'll keep their word? How do you know that this isn't only a trick to catch you? How do you know he won't detonate the bombs even if you surrender? In addition, Jeremiah is in cahoots with that Nyssa al Ghul, who wants to kill you. Don't even think about surrendering. '

'She's right, Bruce,' Gordon nodded.

'You see it? If you don't listen to me, at least listen to Gordon!,' shouted Selina.

'Thank you, Selina. Since I'm going to need all the available men, I need you to take care of protecting Bruce. You can?'

'I'll protect him with my life, if necessary,' Selina answered fiercely.

Bruce, although deeply moved, was going to object that she was in danger too but Selina silenced him by raising her index finger. Then, she forced him to get up and held him by the arm. They left the office. Some agents looked and made comments.

'If someone insinuates that Bruce must surrender to Jeremiah, I'll kill him, is that clear?,' Selina cautioned, pulling out her switchblade.

'I, if I were in your place, would listen to her,' advised Bullock.


	20. BatCat

Selina wanted to go with Bruce to the Sirens club. But there, they found an unpleasant surprise —Jeremiah had broadcasted the message that he had filled Gotham with bombs, but he would give their location in exchange for Bruce being handed over to him (and besides, whoever who did it would be generously rewarded). Many people there tried to jump on Bruce, but Barbara fired her pistol several times into the air.

'No one is going to lay hands on my business partner,' Barbara replied, approaching Bruce. 'Guys, you'd better leave and look for a good hiding place until this mess ends. For example, on one of your squats in the Narrows,' Barbara suggested to Selina.

And they did it so. Although Bruce's car was left parked next to the Sirens club for being too recognizable. First, they walked to the Flea Market in the Narrows, where Bruce sold his expensive clothes and changed them for cheaper clothes. While he was changing clothes, Selina said in a playful tone,

'Wow, I can see my guess was true, you really wear black underpants!'

(One thing to keep in mind is this, although Bruce and Selina had slept together more than one night, they had never had a complete sexual intercourse, they tried it the night of the day they got married, but Selina became very tense when Bruce started to caress her directly on her skin, so they had decided to wait a bit more. In fact, they had not even seen each other naked; although Bruce had seen Selina in her underwear —but she had not seen him like that.)

This done, Selina took him to the same squat where she and Bruce had lived for a while when they were younger, just after Bruce refused to kill Matches Malone. That flat had gone through many hands after that, but Selina had recovered it for her occasional use. Because, as Barbara had once told Gordon, she was a stray cat and liked to wander. Until her wedding with Bruce, she sometimes slept in The Sirens, sometimes in a squat on the Narrows as that where they were now, and sometimes on the streets. After the wedding, she had added Bruce's bed to the places where she slept. To Alfred's desperation, she sneaked into Wayne Manor at night while Alfred and Bruce slept and crawled into Bruce's bed without asking, like a cat that climbs on its master's bed. The first time she did it, Bruce was startled when he noticed her presence, but then he calmed down. The second time, when Bruce noticed Selina's weight on his mattress and her arms around him, he felt immense happiness. Not only that, Bruce had left a T-shirt of his for her to wear to sleep and so being more comfortable than sleeping with her clothes on (a custom she had inherited from her days as a street girl). Which Selina did. Then, when the next morning Bruce woke up with Selina slept beside him and hugging him, he felt like crying for joy and happiness. It did not matter that the girl had not stayed for breakfast then.

Once there, they turned on the television. In the TV news, they once again reported Jeremiah's message. They also said there had been numerous incidents in different parts of the city because people who looked like Bruce Wayne had been assaulted. They also showed images of many people were trying to flee the city; and said that the bridges and the exit roads were jammed with cars. The TV showed too Harvey Bullock trying to convey a message of calm, but without much conviction. Because Bullock was not Jim Gordon (who had gone to see Edward Nygma for him to help locate the bombs). He did not have his authority. And when the interviewer asked Bullock if it would not be easier for the police to arrest Bruce and hand him over directly to Jeremiah Valeska, he did not know what to answer. The TV screen showed too some citizens saying that Bruce should surrender to Jeremiah to save the city, calling him selfish for not having done so already. Selina turned off the television. She had had enough already.

'This is not happening. This is not happening. This is not happening,' Bruce began to say mechanically .

'Are you okay?,' asked Selina, visibly worried, stting on the bed, next to him ant holding his hand.

'Jeremiah is going to devastate Gotham, and it's all my fault,' sobbed Bruce

'YOUR fault? Are you the one who has placed those bombs?,' Selina scowled.

'No but...'

'No "buts",' interrupted Selina. 'You're not to blame for anything of this. Moreover, if I were you, I would leave this cursed city NOW. '

'What have you said?,' Bruce looked at her, speechless.

'That if I were you, I would leave this cursed city.'

'No way!'

'Of course not. You still believe yourself the savior of a city that doesn't deserve to be saved, 'Selina sighed, shaking her head. 'If Gotham deserves something, it's to be in the hands of riffraff like Jerome Valeska.'

But his reason for not wanting to flee was not that, not this time. The idea of fleeing from a city that seemed to have repudiated him (at least judging by what was seen in the news program, where NO ONE appeared to defend Bruce) was suddenly very attractive. What he did not want was ... he was unable to formulate it with words, but instead he stared at Selina, perhaps she would understand that.

'What?,' said the girl.

And then, Bruce did it. He kissed her. Normally, it was she who initiated the snogging sessions, but not at that moment. He not only kissed her, he kissed her passionately. In that kiss there was no longer only love and tenderness (although there were both things, of course), there was passion, fire. At first she was somewhat tense, but then, she let herself go. Soon, she found herself lying on her back on the bed, with Bruce right on top of her, kissing her as if his life depended on it. She felt such a brutal heat inside her that she thought she was going to catch fire. She noticed that Bruce's hand was coming under her shirt and beginning to caress her directly on her skin. She began to feel tense, and Bruce stopped.

'Sorry, I got carried away by passion,' Bruce apologized. 'I don't know what happened to me.'

Bruce leaned on his hands and prepared to get up, but she held him back.

'What's the matter, Selina?,' he asked, visibly nervous.

In response, Selina began unbuttoning Bruce's shirt, button by button.

'What are you doing?'

'What do you think I'm doing?,' replied Selina mischievously, unbuttoning another button.

'Are you ... are you sure? We've talked about this before, I don't want to do anything you don't want to do,' said Bruce nervously.

Selina, then, gently took him by the cheeks.

'I've been keeping people at a distance from me all my life because I've always been afraid that they'll finally abandon me like my mother did. And with you, I have been doing the same,' she said, with an unusually serious expression. 'That's why I become so tense when our kisses and caresses become very intense. But I've decided that I'm already tired of all this shit. I don't want to keep you at a distance anymore. That's why I want to do this, Bruce. As much as you. And don't tell me that you don't, because I won't believe you'.

'Okay,' Bruce nodded, after that, he kissed her again.

What happened next, I will leave it to my readers' imagination. I will only say that although Bruce did not know very well what he was doing and Selina found it difficult to relax and respond properly to Bruce's caresses and kisses, this time they made it to the end. When they finished, they stayed for a while hugging each other on the bed, with their clothes on the floor in a confused pile.

'Do you know why I don't want to leave Gotham? Because I don't want to leave without you,' said Bruce, fiddling with Selina's curly hair.

'And who said you have to leave without me? Now, I feel I'm really your wife, Bruce. So I'll go wherever you go, even if it's at the end of the world,' Selina kissed him tenderly and then showed him her wedding ring.

'I can't ask you to come with me.'

'Are you thinking about getting rid of me? What's wrong, you just wanted to have a shag with me?,' an expression of anger appeared on Selina's face.

'It isn't that. I have traveled a lot since I was very young and I know many places besides Gotham. But you don't. Gotham is your home. To leave Gotham is to enter a new world, completely unknown to you.'

Selina snorted and shook her head.

'How many times have I told you that I don't want you to protect me or to patronize me?'

'I'm not...'

'Of course you are, you always do it!' Selina interrupted. 'I just told you that I'll follow you wherever you go and you have answered with those crap that Gotham is my home and everything else. Well, for you to know, you stupid, arrogant, self-righteous and boring billionaire, Gotham is not my home anymore. For me, Gotham can go to hell. My home is wherever you are,' Selina prodded Bruce's bare chest with the tip of her index finger.

Bruce was so moved by such a declaration of love that he felt like crying. Suddenly, he forgot everything. He forgot that he was Bruce Wayne, the heir of the Wayne family. He forgot his plans to become a protector of Gotham (which anyway he had layed aside a bit). He forgot completely about Wayne Enterprises. He forgot about Jeremiah Valeska. At that time, only their mutual love existed. And he only wanted one thing —to spend as much time as possible with Selina Kyle. He decided to follow his heart.

'Okey, then. Let's run away together. '

The next morning, Jim Gordon read the following statement to the press,

"Citizens of Gotham, I wish to inform you about some facts relatives to the events yesterday. With the help of Mr. Edward Nygma, a former GCPD forensic expert, we have managed to locate and deactivate all the bombs that Jeremiah Valeska had placed in different parts of Gotham. The evacuation order has been lifted. Jeremiah's plan was to destroy a series of buildings so that the city resembled the underground labyrinth in which he lived for years. Not only that, we also know that during this time he had acquired an insane obsession with Bruce Wayne. His idea was to make Bruce Wayne go crazy with the spectacle of Gotham's destruction. To that end, he tricked him into financing the construction of his bombs, making him believe that they were very powerful power generators. Besides, he wanted to subject him to this brutal blackmail we've seen today, that is, if he did not surrender, Jeremiah would blow up the bombs. His idea was to make him feel so guilty about what happened that he would lose his reason.

"Many citizens of Gotham have fallen into Jeremiah's trap. Even police officers have even asked me to arrest Bruce Wayne and hand him over to Jeremiah. Because, according to them, only thus would Gotham be saved. But there is something else you do not know. Something that we have found out thanks to a traitor among Jeremiah's associates. And it's that Jeremiah had a plan B in case Bruce surrendered. To blow up the bombs on the bridges that connect Gotham with the mainland and isolate the city from the outside world. Thus, isolated from the outside world, the city would fall prey to criminals.

"Thanks to the same person who has informed us of Jeremiah's plan B, we also know that Jeremiah had partnered with a dangerous organization known as the League of Shadows, which operated in Gotham on the basis of diplomatic immunity that the consulate of Nanda Parbat in Gotham provided its leaders. Its actual leader, Nyssa al Ghul, has fled, taking advantage of that diplomatic immunity. The US State Department and the FBI have been informed to take appropriate measures, which could include breaking diplomatic relations and perhaps even prosecutions for espionage and subversive activities.

"Regarding Jeremiah Valeska, he is now in Arkham, in a catatonic state. Such a state, according to doctors, has to do with the strange disappearance of Bruce Wayne, of which I will now speak to you. We know that Bruce Wayne left the GCPD Central Precinct yesterday at noon, then, he was seen in the Sirens club, and since then, nobody knows anything about him. He has not returned to Wayne Manor, and the car in which he was last seen yesterday was found parked this morning at the Sirens club.

'Any questions?,' ended Gordon.

''Only one, captain,' Valerie Vale asked. 'What do you think has happened with Bruce Wayne?'

'We don't know. But we have found out that one of Wayne Enterprises' private jets is not in the hangars at the Gotham airfield. According to the information provided to us by the air traffic controllers, it took off last night. We believe that Bruce Wayne managed to escape secretly from the city, and left on that plane. '

'And is not it possible he was kidnapped? I have been told by a reliable source that yesterday he left the GCPD Central Precinct accompanied by a girl with a criminal record,' Valerie Vale insisted. 'Maybe she wants to ask for a ransom for him.'

'That "girl with a criminal record" as you call her has more guts than the vast majority of Gotham citizens,' Gordon answered almost furiously. 'Not one more word about it.'

**Hi! This fanfic is almost finished. In the next, and last, chapter, we will know what has happened with Bruce and Selina, and we will see the different characters making plans for the future. Bat-hugs for everyone!**

**N.B. I have changed the initial title of this chapter from "Bruce and Selina are Husband and Wife" to "BatCat", but not its content.**


	21. Looking at the future

'Butch!,' exclaimed Tabitha. 'I can't believe it!'

And certainly, it was incredible. "Solomon Grundy" no longer existed. Tabitha and Barbara had in front of them the same usual Butch Gilzean. The jovial and loyal, but not too smart, Butch Gilzean. Certainly, Dr. Hugo Strange and the money from the bank robberies the Penguin had committed along with Lee and Edward Nygma had done a good work. Tabitha ran and hug Butch. Barbara and the Penguin seemed really moved. "Maybe, very deep down, the Penguin isn't as depraved as everyone think", Barbara said to herself. He had promised to cure Butch and he had complied.

'Butch,' said the Penguin. 'You must know that I have always considered you a friend and that this is nothing personal. I only do it to make Tabitha suffer as I have suffered.'

'What?,' exclaimed Tabitha.

And before anyone could react, the Penguin took out his revolver and shot Butch in the liver.

'An eye for an eye, Tabs. You took away from me what I loved most, my mother. And I take away from you what you love most, Butch. Let's call it even. And now, if you don't mind, I have a city to control again, even more now that Bruce Wayne has disappeared. Bye, bye, ladies.'

Nyssa al Ghul was in the basement of her country's embassy in Washington. A group of armed soldiers entered. They were carrying forcibly a person whose head was covered by a cloth bag and whose hands were tied in front of her.

'Good job, Eduardo,' said Nyssa al Ghul to the man in charge of the group, a stocky, bearded man. 'Uncover her head.'

The so-called Eduardo removed the bag from the head of his prisoner, discovering a woman who seemed to be the same age as Bruce Wayne, and who, at the same time, had an indisputable air of family with Nyssa, starting with her long and shiny black hair. Nyssa stared at her for a long time.

'How low you have sunk, sister,' said the prisoner. 'Hiring mercenaries to bring me here.'

'I'm not a mercenary, beauty,' said Eduardo. 'I serve Nyssa al Ghul out of loyalty to her. She was the one who took me out of that hell on earth that was the prison of Peña Dura and the one who gave me a purpose in life. To become the bane of those who oppose her plans, the bane of the corrupt, the bane of ... '

'Okay, okay, I got it,' replied Nyssa's sister nonchalantly. 'What do you want from me, Nyssa? Killing me? Go ahead, you know that, unlike you, I have accepted my mortality, as Father did. '

'Don't talk about Father like that, Talia!,' Nyssa roared, slapping her sister. 'It's your fault if we won't see him anymore! You are a traitor to the family! You make me sick!'

'In fact, we're not family. The only thing we have in common is that our father put his cock first in your mother and then in mine. We didn't even grow up together. Is that what you call family? '

Nyssa strode toward Talia and shook her violently. Then, she pulled out a gun and pointed it to her sister.

'What a bad temper, sister! I don't think Father liked that. Come on, pull the trigger.'

Nyssa seemed to consider for a moment the possibility of shooting, but she thought better of it and put her gun away.

'Why, Talia? Why did you do it?'

'Why did I do what?'

'Betraying us. Betraying the League of the Shadows.'

'I haven't betrayed the League of the Shadows.'

'Do you think I don't know it was you who snitched on us to the GCPD?'

'And what if I did?'

'So you don't deny it!'

'You aren't even the legitimate head of the League of the Shadows. Have you forgotten that the person whom Father chose is Bruce Wayne? You have tried to destroy him. So _you_ are the real traitor. I am only serving Father's legitimate heir.'

'Father's murderer, rather. Along with that wild cat.'

'Father had chosen to die. And he incited young Bruce Wayne to kill him. That's not a real murder.'

'In any case, this Wayne doesn't seem very willing to assume the role of heir. Right now, he has fled Gotham and nobody knows where he is.'

'Father made the mistake of trying to turn Bruce Wayne into Gotham's protector too soon, and using the wrong means. But I have been studying him since our father's death and I have learned from his mistakes. If my sources are right, soon, a new war will break out for the control of Gotham, and that war will push Captain James Gordon and his police officers to the limit of their strength. When that happens, Bruce Wayne's time will have arrived.'

'So, do you think he will become a sort of ... a sort of hero?,' scoffed Nyssa.

'No. Not a hero. There is no heroes in Gotham. He will become a silent guardian. A watchful protector. A Dark Knight,' answered Talia solemnly.

'A "Dark Knight" and a "silent guardian" who, in this moment, will probably be having fun in one of his palaces, eating, drinking, dancing and copulating with that wild cat with whom he has fled ,' snorted Nyssa. 'So now, I am Father's real heir. Eduardo!'

Eduardo came closer.

'Take her away from here. I don't care what you do with my ex-sister, I only know that I don't want to see her again,' ordered Nyssa.

'Sister, if you want to kill me, why don't you do it right here? Or, better, why don't you kill me with your own hands?,' Talia answered coolly.

'What a good idea,' Nyssa smirked. 'I'm going to cut your precious neck and drink your blood. Eduardo, give me your knife. '

Eduardo handed Nyssa a huge knife. Nyssa checked its sharpness and slowly approached her sister.

'Prepare to die. And this time, all the Lazarus pits we have left will not be able to revive you. Because I will burn your corpse and disperse your ashes in a thousand different places. You, grab her well,' she looked at the soldiers.

Two soldiers grabbed Talia, and Eduardo made her lift her head, leaving her neck exposed.

But when Nyssa was about to cut her sister's throat, Thalia suddenly released the rope that bound her hands, snatched the knife and stabbed her sister in the chest with it. Nyssa's legs failed, and she fell to the ground. Talia took the gun from her and, before the soldiers could react, she had quickly shot them all. Except Eduardo, who looked at her, astonished. Everything had happened so fast that he had not had time to move even a muscle.

'I still have one bullet left. And if you make the slightest movement, it will go from the magazine of my gun to your brains. But you can serve me like you served my sister. Will you do it?'

'I'll do it,' Edward answered reluctantly. 'I don't feel like dying. Not yet.'

'All right. What's your complete name, soldier? '

'Eduardo Dorrance. Also known as "Bane". '

'I have a mission for you.'

The Penguin dressed very elegantly, with a full black tuxedo, gloves and a top hat. He went to the house of Johnny Viti, Carmine Falcone's nephew, and knocked on the door.

'You're late, Mr Cobblepot,' Viti scolded him.

'I've been very busy,' smiled the Penguin falsely, leaving his umbrella in the umbrella stand.

'Enter.'

They sat on either side of Viti's desk. Viti offered a cigarette to the Penguin.

'Thanks, but no. I don't want my fingers to smell like tobacco, besides, I'm wearing expensive gloves. '

'I suggest you use this,' Viti handed him a cigarette holder.

'Agree.'

The Penguin inserted the cigarette into the cigarette holder, he lit it, he put it in his mouth, and he took several puffs.

'Delicious. You have good taste, Mr. Viti. Like your illustrious uncle. '

'Stop flattering me and tell me what you want.'

'I'm here to make you an offer.'

'What is it about?'

'To help me get the control of Gotham again. In return, you'd have a juicy percentage in my business. '

'Is that the reason why you have dressed so smartly? To impress me and, in that way, compelling me to accept your offer? '

'Let's say it is so, would it be an inconvenience?,' the Penguin smiled again.

Viti was silent for a while, then he nodded.

'The offer is tempting. But my father's time has passed. Many of those who were faithful to him have disappeared. '

'I know you are a great organizer. You could rebuild your father's empire almost from scratch. I'd give you access to people loyal to your father left in Gotham, as well as information about Gotham, and reliable people recruited from the underprivileged of the city's underworld. My friend Edward Nygma ... oops, he doesn't like to be called that, he prefers to be called The Riddler, my friend Riddler would bring his intellect and knowledge about police procedures, and you would bring your capacity as organizer, and the name and money of your family. Between the three of us, we can achieve it, even more now that young Bruce Wayne has disappeared. '

'All right,' Viti agreed.

'So, deal?,' asked the Penguin, holding out his hand to Viti.

'Deal,' answered Viti, shaking Penguin's hand. 'Soon, Gotham will be ours.'

That afternoon, Alfred had invited James Gordon, Harvey Bullock and Lucius Fox to Wayne Manor. Gordon could see that the ex-soldier seemed to have aged twenty years in only a few days. Undoubtedly, the disappearance of who had been the center of his life until then had left him internally devastated.

'I still can't believe that he has gone just like that, without warning, without saying anything to anyone. I always thought that girl was a bad thing. I should never have allowed her to enter his life,' Alfred lamented.

''That's not fair, Alfred. If it were not for Selina, Bruce would be dead,' Gordon recalled.

'If I were the richest guy in Gotham and the same things that have happened to Bruce had happened to me, I'd have done exactly the same,' Bullock added. 'I'm sure Bruce is now having a really great time in some luxury villa or hotel, eating, drinking and shagging all day. My dreamed life.'

Judging from his face, Alfred did not much like the verb "shag". But Bullock insisted.

'What? They are already of legal age and, besides, they're married. They're no longer children, Alfred. And, since they are still teenagers, they'll have their libidos sky high. Surely, those young rascals don't leave their room at any time,' Bullock laughed mischievously.

''You don't have to be so crude!,' protested Alfred.

'Okay, okay, don't get mad. What I want to say is that Bruce and Cat are probably happy wherever they are. Haven't you stopped to think about it? '

'Maybe you're right,' nodded Alfred, the idea of his boy being happy seeming to calm him a little.

They talked for a while about their plans for the future. Gordon was uneasy because news had reached him that the Penguin and Edward Nygma had allied with a nephew of Carmine Falcone to take control of Gotham. Lucius Fox talked about the future of Wayne Enterprises and the danger to them that Bruce Wayne's disappearance could imply. Bullock dreamed of doing the same as Bruce and Selina but he did not want to leave Gordon alone in the face of danger. And Alfred just did not know what to do with his life now that Bruce was not there. Just at that moment, an employee of Wayne Manor brought the mail. Alfred began to examine him without much interest, until he stopped in an envelope of air mail.

'It's from Master B!,' exclaimed Alfred, visibly excited.

'Are you sure?'

'I would recognize Bruce's handwriting among a thousand! Besides, it's for all of us. '

'Read it!' Lucius encouraged him.

Alfred broke the envelope and pulled out a letter. The letter said this,

"Hello everyone, I'm sorry I left like that without telling anyone, but I want you to know that I'm fine, and also, for the first time since Mom and Dad were murdered in front of me, I'm really happy. And what makes me happiest is seeing Selina happy. You must know that, for the first time, I've got her to open her heart to me. These days, she's been telling me all those things about her life she normally would never have told anyone. It has not been easy, in fact, more than once she has burst into tears, but I have always been by her side, not judging her, comforting her, encouraging her to keep talking, and this has been like a cure for her soul. Painful, bitter, but a cure after all. Now she is smiling almost all day. Every time I see her smile ... I just don't have words to describe what I feel at that moment."

'Ah, young love...,' sighed Bullock.

'Sssh, Harv. Go on, Alfred,' said Gordon.

"I don't know what's going to happen now. Selina thinks that I don't have to think about it. Only to enjoy the moment. That's what she did to survive on the streets of Gotham. Never think about the next day, just think about the present moment. And that's what I will do. I know it sounds selfish and maybe it is, but now I feel that in the world there is nothing else that matters, apart from our love."

"When I have clearer ideas and especially _when I recover the hope that Gotham has salvation_, I will return."

"I wish you all the best. With love, B."

That letter was accompanied by a photo that made everyone smile.

It was a picture (obviously taken with a self-timer) of Bruce sitting on a sofa, with Selina's head lying on his lap, eyes closed, and Bruce caressing her hair.

* * *

**Hello! With this, I put an end to this modest fan-fic. When I see the fifth season, I'll see if I do a continuation. ****I hope that, although English is not my mother tongue, this fanfic is minimally readable. ****I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did when I was writing it. Bat-hugs to everyone!**


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